The Supreme Doctrine

Talks on the Kenopanishad

Talks given from 08/07/73 pm to 16/07/73 pm

English Discourse series

17 Chapters

Year published: 1977

Previously called "Kena Upanishad"

The Supreme Doctrine

Chapter #1

Chapter title: Toward the Awakening

8 July 1973 pm in Mt Abu Meditation Camp

Archive code: 7307085

ShortTitle: DOCTRN01

Audio:

Yes

Video:

No

Length: 88 mins

INVOCATION

AUM, MAY BRAHMAN PROTECT US BOTH. MAY HE NOURISH US BOTH. MAY WE BOTH ACHIEVE
ENERGY. MAY THIS STUDY MAKE US BOTH ILLUMINED. MAY WE NEVER HATE EACH OTHER.
AUM, PEACE, PEACE, PEACE.
AUM, MAY MY LIMBS BECOME STRONG. ALSO, LET MY SPEECH, PRANA -- VITAL AIR -- SIGHT,
HEARING, AND ALL THE SENSE ORGANS, BE VIGOROUS. THE ENTIRE EXISTENCE IS THE BRAHMAN
OF THE UPANISHADS. MAY I NEVER DENY BRAHMAN; MAY BRAHMAN NOT DENY ME. LET THERE BE
NO DENIAL AT ALL. LET THERE BE NO DENIAL AT LEAST ON MY PART. WHATEVER VIRTUES ARE IN
THE UPANISHADS, MAY THEY ABIDE IN I WHO AM DEVOTED TO THE ATMAN -- SELF. MAY THEY
ABIDE IN ME.
AUM, PEACE, PEACE, PEACE.

I do not know where to begin or where to end, because life itself is beginningless and endless. Like

these hills around you or the clouds wandering above you, or like the sky, you are also beginningless and
endless. Nothing ever begins or ends, and that which can have a beginning or an end is bound to be
artificial. Nature remains, abides; it is always there.

So whenever a question arises of talking about the ultimate, the supreme, the innermost, the very ground

of being, it becomes difficult to know where to begin and where to end because it is always there, it has
always been so and it will always be so. There has never been a beginning to it and never will there be an
end. So I will begin just in the middle because that is the only possible place to begin, and I will end just in
the middle because there is no other way to end it.

The first thing I would like to say to you is that I have chosen this Upanishad not to comment upon it.

Commentaries are already too many and they have not helped anyone. They may have harmed many, they

may have become hindrances to many, but they have not helped anyone. Commentaries cannot help because
commentaries are second rate. I am not going to comment on this Upanishad, rather, on the contrary, I am
going to respond to it. I will just echo and re-echo.

Really, whatsoever I say will belong basically to me. The Upanishad is just an excuse. Through it I will

explain myself -- remember this. Whatsoever I have felt, whatsoever I have known and lived, I would like to
talk about it. I feel the same has been the case with the seers of the Upanishads. They have known, they
have lived, they have experienced the same truth. Their ways of expression may be different -- their
language is very ancient; it has to be decoded again so that it becomes available to you, to the contemporary
mind. But whatsoever they have said, they have said the basic thing.

Whenever someone comes to be a void, whenever someone comes to be a nobody, this happens -- that

which has happened to the seers of the Upanishads. Whenever you are not, the divine becomes present;
whenever you are, the divine is absent.

Your presence is the problem, your absence is the door. These RISHIS have become total nobodies. We

do not even know their names; we do not know who wrote these Upanishads, who communicated them.
They have not signed them. No photograph of them exists, no knowledge about their lives. They have
simply become absent. They have said whatsoever is true but just as a vehicle. They have not been in any
way involved in the expression. They have made themselves completely absent so the message becomes
totally present.

These Upanishads are eternal. They do not belong to this country, they do not belong to any religion.

They do not belong, they CANNOT belong, to anybody. They belong only to those who are ready to take a
jump into nothingness.

I have chosen to talk about the Upanishads because to me they represent one of the purest expressions of

the ultimate that is possible, if it is possible at all. Really, it is difficult, in a sense impossible, to convey
through the mind that which is known beyond mind. In a sense, it is absolutely impossible to say something
about that which is felt when you are in the deepest of silences. When words do not exist within you, when
verbalization ceases completely, when intellect is no more functioning, when the mind is not there at all to
memorize, then it happens: then you experience. And when the mind comes back, when the memory starts
functioning, when the intellect takes possession of you again, the experience has already passed.

The experience is not there now: only echoes of it, only vibrations of it are left. Only they can be

captured, and through the mind only they can be expressed. That is why it has always been impossible, very
very difficult, for those who have known to say something. Those who do not know anything, they can say
much. But for those who know it becomes more and more difficult to say something because whatsoever
they say appears false. They can compare the experience with its expressions because they have a living
experience. Now they can feel what language is doing to it: it is falsifying it.

When a lived experience comes into words, it looks dead, pale. A lived experience which is total, in

which your whole being dances and celebrates, when it is expressed through the intellect looks just dull, of
no significance.

Those who do not know, they can talk much because they have nothing with which to compare. They

have no original experience; they cannot know what they are doing. Once someone knows, he knows what a
problem it is to express it.

Many have remained totally silent and many have remained completely unknown because of that --

because we can only know about someone who speaks. The moment someone speaks he enters society.
When someone stops speaking he leaves society, he is no more part of it. Language is the milieu in which
society exists. It is just like blood: blood circulates in you and you exist. Language circulates within society
and the society exists. Without language there is no society. So those who have remained silent, they have
fallen out of it. We have forgotten them. Really, we have never known them.

Somewhere Vivekananda has said -- and it is very very true -- that the Buddhas, Krishnas and Christs

that we have known are not really the representatives. They are not really central, they are on the periphery.
The centralmost happenings have been lost to history. Those who became so silent that they couldn't
communicate with us are not known. They cannot be known: there is no way to know them. In a way
Vivekananda is right but those who have become so silent that they have not uttered anything about their
experience have not helped us. They have not been really compassionate enough. In a sense they have been
totally selfish.

It is true that to say anything about truth is difficult, but even then it has to be tried. It MUST be tried

because even a diluted truth will be helpful for those who live in total illusion. Even something which

carries a very very far echo will help them to change.

It is not that Buddha is very happy with what he says. Whatsoever he says, he feels is not true. He feels

the same way as Lao Tzu felt. Lao Tzu says, "That which can be said cannot be true. The moment it is said
it is falsified." But still, those who live in worlds of many many illusions, those who are deeply asleep, fast
asleep, for them even a false alarm may be helpful. If they can come out of their sleep, if they can be
brought to a new consciousness, to a new being, even a false alarm is good. Of course, when they awaken
themselves they will know that it was false -- but it will have helped.

In a sense, wherever we are and whatsoever we are, we are so false that, really, absolutely pure truth is

not needed at all. It cannot penetrate you. It will not have any contact; you will not be able to understand it.
Only a very diluted truth, modified -- in a sense, falsified -- can have any appeal for you, because then you
can understand the language; it has been translated for you.

These Upanishads are very simple; they speak in a very heart to heart way. They are not philosophical,

they are religious. They are not concerned with concepts, with theories, with doctrines, they are concerned
with a lived truth -- what it is and how it can be lived. You cannot think about it, you cannot philosophize
about it. You can only move into it and allow it to move into you. You can only be pregnant with it, you can
only be totally absorbed in it. You can melt in it.

We will talk about the Upanishads, and I will bring my own experience as a response to them. But that

is only a stepping stone. Unless you move into the very dimension, it will not be of much use. Unless you
move and take a jump into the unknown, it will not help you. Or, it may even be harmful because your mind
is already too much burdened, too heavy. It need not be burdened any more. I am here to unburden it.

I am not going to teach you some new knowledge. I am going to teach you only a pure type of

ignorance. When I say pure ignorance, I mean innocence. I mean a mind which is totally vacant, open. A
mind that knows is never open: it is closed. The very feeling that "I know" closes you. And when you feel
that "I don't know" you are open: you are ready to move, ready to learn, ready to travel.

I will teach you ignorance, unlearning, not knowledge. Only unlearning can help you. The moment you

unlearn, the moment you again become ignorant, you become childlike, you become innocent. Jesus says,
"Only those who are like small children will be able to enter God's kingdom." I will try to make you like
small children.

Be courageous. Effort will be needed for it. It is the greatest challenge that can be given to you. Unless

you accept the challenge you will not be able to understand the Upanishads -- or me.

For this challenge a few things are to be understood as basic requirements. The first: put aside all your

knowledge. For these eight days, kindly be ignorant. You will not lose that knowledge. If you still feel that
it is good after eight days, you can start carrying it again. But for these eight days please put down all the
burdens of your mind. Whatsoever you know, do not allow it to interfere here because if you allow it to
interfere here, I will not be able to create the communion for which I have called you.

It is going to be a great experiment. If you put aside your knowledge -- and you can. Just a decision is

needed that "For these eight days I will not carry my knowledge; I will not say 'I know'; I will just feel that I
do not know anything." If you can feel this, you are ready to enter into the unknown -- because the unknown
can be entered only when there is no knowledge. Knowledge can lead you only to the known; only
ignorance can lead you to the unknown. Ignorance is just wonderful if you can understand the meaning of it.

Put aside whatsoever you know. And what do you know really? You simply go on pretending that you

know. You go on talking about God and about the soul and about heaven and hell, and you do not know
anything. This pretension costs too much because, by and by, you yourself are deceived by it.

For these eight days the first thing to be remembered is to be ignorant. Do not discuss, do not argue, do

not question, do not answer anybody. If you are ignorant, how can you discuss and how can you argue? If
you are ignorant, how can you question? Really, if you are ignorant how can you even question? What can
you question? Your questions also arise out of your so-called knowledge. And what is there to answer? If
you can feel that you are ignorant you will become silent, because what is there to think about?

Your knowledge goes on revolving around and around, it moves in circles in your mind. Put it aside --

and not in parts because no one can put it aside in parts. Put it aside completely -- wholesale. Decide that for
eight days you will be as ignorant as you were when you were born -- just a child, a new baby who knows
nothing, asks nothing, discusses nothing, argues nothing. If you can be a small baby, much is possible. Even
that which looks impossible is possible.

If you are ignorant, only then can I work. Only in your ignorance can I transform you. Your knowledge

is the barrier. If you feel that your knowledge is so significant and so important that you cannot put it aside,

then go away. Do not remain here because then it is futile. I am not going to increase your knowledge. I am
not interested at all in what you know, I am interested in YOU -- what you are. And that being that you are
can explode only when these barriers of so-called knowledge are thrown.

Be ready for the unknown and you can only be ready if you are ready to be ignorant. And I say that this

is very courageous: to feel ignorant is the greatest daring possible to man. Why? -- because knowledge gives
you ego, knowledge gives you a feeling that you are somebody, that you know this and that. When you feel
that you are ignorant there is no food for your ego to feed upon. If you are ignorant ego disappears.

People come to me and they go on asking how to dissolve the ego, and I say, "Do not try. You cannot

dissolve it. Rather, put aside your knowledge and the ego will disappear." It will disappear just like
dewdrops disappear from the grass when the sun rises in the morning. The ego is a dewdrop. When you are
really not knowing, that is what I mean by ignorance. When you are not knowing and you say, "I do not
know anything, I am standing in darkness," where can your ego stand? Where can it have a foothold? With
the knowledge disappears the ego. So the first thing: be ignorant.

The second thing: the human mind has been totally perverted by serious people. Those who have taken

upon themselves the great work of making men serious have destroyed all that is beautiful in you. Puritans,
moralists, religious teachers, churches, they have destroyed all that is beautiful in you because the beauty is
related to the nonserious.

Ugliness is related to the serious, and religion has become ugly because it has become too much

attached to seriousness. Do not be serious. For these eight days be playful, childlike, nonserious -- enjoying.
Enjoy yourself enjoying others, enjoying the whole world around you. The hills are beautiful, and there will
be rains and there will be clouds. This night is beautiful, the silence is beautiful. But if you are serious your
doors are closed; then you are not open to the silence of the night -- because except for man nothing is
serious in existence.

Be playful. It will be difficult, because you are so much structured. You have an armor around you and

it is so difficult to loosen it, to relax it. You cannot dance, you cannot sing, you cannot just jump, you
cannot just scream and laugh and smile. Even if you want to laugh you first want something there to be
laughed at. You cannot simply laugh. There must be some cause: only then can you laugh. There must be
some cause: only then can you cry and weep.

You are serious. You look at life as a business or as mathematics. It is not! Life is poetic, illogical. It is

not like work, it is like play. Look at the trees, the animals, the birds; look at the sky: the whole existence is
playful. You are very serious, so it is no wonder that you have become separate from existence. You are
uprooted from it, and then you feel alienated, then you feel like strangers, then you feel that this existence is
not your own. No one else is responsible for it except you and your seriousness.

Put aside knowledge, put aside seriousness; be absolutely playful for eight days. You have nothing to

lose. If you do not gain anything, you will not lose anything either. What can you lose in being playful? But
I say to you: you will never be the same again. If you can really be playful, you will have a new perspective,
a new way to look, a new way to be. And when you go back you will not be the same person. The whole of
life will change its meaning for you, because the meaning is given by you. Now life looks like a boredom,
life looks meaningless. YOU have made it so because of your seriousness. Life is playful, beautiful, but it
can be beautiful only if your eyes are open to beauty.

People go on asking, "Where is God?" You cannot find him because he is a player and you are serious.

Hindus have been saying for centuries that this existence is God's play, and you are so work-oriented, so
serious, that you cannot meet him. Of course! Obviously! There is no possibility of your meeting him. You
move in different dimensions. He moves into play. The whole existence is just a play. It is not a work; it is
not serious.

Put aside your seriousness, and for eight days become godlike, playful. Again it will be difficult because

you feel you are very mature. You are not! You have not gained maturity. Of course you have lost your
childhood but just losing childhood is not synonymous with being mature. You can lose childhood without
becoming mature. Maturity is not old age, maturity is not concerned with age at all. Maturity is a growth,
and the growth must be through childhood, not against it, remember.

Your maturity is false because it has been against the child. The child was born; maturity has been

created. The child was natural; you are artificial, cultivated. You will have to go back to the child to regain
the source from where growth is possible.

My insistence on being playful is because of this: I want you to go back to the very point from where

you stopped growing. There has been a point in your childhood when you stopped growing and when you

started being false. You may have been angry, a small child in a tantrum, angry, and your father or your
mother said, "Don't be angry! This is not good!" You were natural but a division was created and a choice
was there for you. If you were to remain natural then you would not have got the love of your parents.

Of course, you wanted the love; that was the only security for you, you could not have existed without

it. So you opted, you surrendered. You pushed your nature aside. You started laughing and smiling; you
became a good boy or good girl. The day you became the good boy or a good girl was the day of
catastrophe. From that moment you have never been natural. From that moment you have been serious,
never playful. From that moment you have been dying, not alive. From that moment you have been aging,
not maturing.

In these eight days I want to throw you back to the point where you started being 'good' as against being

natural. Be playful so your childhood is regained. It will be difficult because you will have to put aside your
masks, your faces; you will have to put aside your personality. But remember, the essence can assert itself
only when your personality is not there, because your personality has become an imprisonment. Put it aside.
It will be painful, but it is worth it because you are going to be reborn out of it. And no rebirth is possible
without pain. If you are really determined to be reborn, then take the risk.

For these eight days be small children again. Do not criticize anybody, do not condemn anybody. That

type of nonsense belongs to so-called mature people, not to children. What children do, do. They enjoy. And
they enjoy such simple things that for us so-called mature people it looks absurd. The whole world is filled
with beauty, truth, love, but you cannot enjoy anything.

When we are meditating from tomorrow morning, enjoy it! Remember this: regain your childhood.

Everyone longs for it but no one is doing anything to regain it. Everyone longs for it! People go on saying
that childhood is paradise and poets go on writing poems about the beauty of childhood. Who is preventing
you from regaining it? I give you this opportunity to regain it.

Poetry will not help, and just remembering that it was paradise is not of much use. Why not move into it

again? Why not be a child again? I say to you that if you can be a child again you will start growing in a
new way. For the first time you will be really alive again. And the moment you have the eyes of a child, the
senses of a child -- young, vibrating with life -- the whole of life vibrates with you.

Remember, it is your vibration that needs transformation. The world is already always vibrating in

ecstasy; only you are not tuned. The problem is not with the world, it is with you: you are not tuned to it.
The world is dancing, always celebrating, every moment it is in a festivity. The festival goes on from
eternity to eternity, only you are not tuned to it. You have fallen apart from it, and you are very serious, very
knowing, very mature. You are closed. Throw this enclosure! Move again into the current of life.

When the storm comes, the trees will be dancing, you also dance. When the night comes and everything

is dark, you also be dark. And in the morning when the sun rises, let it rise in you also. Be childlike and
enjoying, not thinking of the past. A child never thinks of the past. Really, he has no past to think about. A
child is not worried about the future; he has no time consciousness. He lives totally unworried. He moves in
the moment; he never carries any hangover. If he is angry then he is angry and in his anger he will say to his
mother, "I hate you." And this is not just words, this is a reality. Really, in that moment he is in total hate.

The next moment he will come out of it and he will be laughing and he will give a kiss to his mother and

he will say, "I love you." There is no contradiction. These are two different moments. He was total hate and
now he is total love. He moves just like a river goes on moving, zigzag. But wherever he is -- wherever the
river is -- he is total, flowing.

For these eight days be like children -- total. If you hate, hate; if you love, love; if you are angry, then

BE angry; and if you are festive, then be festive and dance. Do not carry anything over from the past.
Remain true to the moment; do not hanker for the future. For these eight days drop out of time. Drop out of
time! That is why I say do not be serious: because the more serious you are, the more time conscious you
are. A child lives in eternity; there is no time for him. He is not even aware of it. These eight days will be
real meditation if you drop out of time. Live the moment and be true to it.

Put aside knowledge, put aside seriousness, and thirdly, put aside the division of mind and body.

Divided, you cannot meet the one God. Divided you cannot come to the nondual reality. If you are dual, the
reality will be dual. You have to be one; only then does the reality begin to be one. It is you who ultimately
decide what reality is. If you are mad, the whole existence is mad. If you are silent, then the whole existence
is silent. If you are in love, you will feel that the whole existence is loving.

It is you who decide the quality of the existence around you -- and you are divided. You think your body

and your mind are two things; not only two, but contrary, opposed, fighting -- enemies. No, they are not.

They are two extremes of one rhythm; they are two poles of one existence. The outer is the body, the inner
is the soul, but between the outer and the inner you exist. You are neither the inner nor the outer. The outer
is a part of you and the inner is also a part of you. You exist in between.

Become a unity. At least for eight days do not divide yourself. Become one. If you can become one, a

tremendous energy will be released. And only that en-ergy can lead you into meditation; otherwise there is
no way.

Go into a church: they talk and they talk and they talk; they preach. Go to a religious meeting: words,

word, words -- as if God is only a cerebral question that has to be solved through mind.

No, this will not be of much help. Mentation alone won't do: the body has to be brought in. That is why,

in my meditation techniques, I do not take you as divided: you are one. If your mind is feeling angry, allow
your body to be angry. If your mind is feeling happy, allow your body to dance. Do not create a division.
Let yourself come deep down into the body, and allow the body to flow to your innermost core. Become a
flow!

You are frozen. I would like to melt you and create a flow again. That is why I insist on active

meditation. By 'active' I only mean that your body must be involved in it. If you simply sit in a buddha
posture, you can go on thinking and thinking and thinking; the body is not involved in it. And the body is
the world. Through the body you are related to the existence, through body you exist. Your meditation must
in some way be deeply rooted in the body; otherwise it will become just a dream floating in the mind, just
like clouds without any roots in the earth. I want to push you back to the earth.

For these eight days do not create any division. Be both body and soul simultaneously. The feeling, just

the feeling that you are one, will dissolve your many anguishes, your many tensions, which you have
created by an artificial division. The whole society, modern society, is paranoid because of this division,
schizophrenic because of this division, this split. Standing against yourself, fighting with yourself -- it is
nonsense, but everyone is doing it.

In this camp be one with your body, have a nondual flow. Be alive in the body. And in the meditations

use your body as much as possible. Only then will you have a real depth in meditation. So do not create
division. These three things you have to remember.

And now, a few more points and then I will take the sutra -- a few more points for these eight days. One,

give more and more emphasis to exhalation. Really, do not inhale, only exhale. Do not be disturbed when I
say do not inhale. I mean allow the body to inhale. You exhale and allow the body to inhale; you do not
inhale. Whenever you remember, exhale deeply and then relax and leave the body to inhale.

This will give you very deep relaxation -- because exhalation is death and inhalation is life. The first

thing a child has to do is inhale and the last thing an old man has to do is exhale. Death begins with
exhalation, life begins with inhalation. And remember that death is total relaxation. Life is tension, death is
relaxation.

Meditation is more like death than like life, but death is not against life. Death is the very source of all

life. Life comes out of death and moves again into death. Death is like the ocean and life is like a river: it
comes and falls into the ocean. And then again clouds arise and again it rains and again a river is created,
and it moves again to the ocean.

Death is like the ocean, life is like a river. Death is total relaxation. That is why we are unconsciously

afraid of exhalation. We inhale but we never exhale. Only the body exhales as a necessity. Change this
completely. For these eight days, exhale and allow the body to inhale. That will relax you -- your body, your
mind, your whole nervous system. And when I say exhale deeply, I do not mean for you to create any strain.
Do not create any strain! Simply exhale deeply and enjoy it, as if you are dying in it. The life is moving into
the ocean of death. Relax and surrender, and exhale deeply and enjoy it.

And then wait. I do not say to prevent it -- no! Simply wait. Do not do anything for inhalation, neither

for nor against. The body will take the inhalation by itself. And if you have deeply exhaled, a deep
inhalation will occur. But your emphasis should be on exhalation -- the first thing.

Secondly: thrice a day we will be meeting here, but there will be time in between. What are you going to

do in that time? Remember one thing: do not do all that you have always been doing. Do not continue it --
the same talk in the same way: do not continue it, put it aside. Be new, be original. Do not do whatsoever
you have been doing. Change it, because it has become a habit pattern. If you continue that pattern new
things cannot evolve. Put it aside, throw it away.

For these eight days do not move in your old habit patterns. Do not say things which you have been

saying always. The moment you remember, stop! You know you have said this so many times; you have

been saying this to your wife for years, and you know what she will answer. Everything has become a
routine, a mechanical repetition.

Do not say it. Say something new. Or if you cannot find, if it is very difficult to find something new,

remain silent: that will be something new. Or, and this will look foolish but I want you to be foolish for
these eight days -- do not use words, use gestures. If you want to say something to your friend or to your
partner in the room or to your wife or anyone, use gestures; do not use language. Just be as if deaf and
dumb: use gestures, say something through gestures. Or, if you cannot express through gestures, then use
sounds -- but do not use words. A deep exultation will happen to you; a deep benediction will come to you.

Use sounds or gestures. Do not use words, because words are the mind. Use sounds like birds and

animals do, or gestures. You will have a new feeling in yourself, you will feel a new being within yourself,
because the old pattern of personality will not be functioning. You can do this alone also and it will be
worth it. Anytime during the day, sit alone: go near a tree, sit alone near it and start making sounds. Do not
use words -- just as small babies do, go on uttering any sound, repeating and enjoying it. It is baby talk
without any lingual meaning. Just utter any sounds and enjoy the very utterance.

What I mean is: do not be a victim of the usual pattern here. Do not be concerned with anyone else. You

are always concerned. Be concerned with yourself. Be totally selfish; be concerned with your own self.
Enjoy your being, enjoy the surroundings, meditate with the group and alone, and be totally centered in
yourself. Do not think about what others are doing. Do not think about it! Allow others to do whatsoever
they want to do. Do not interfere with anyone. Even the idea of allowing others to do whatsoever they want
to do will free you because you are unnecessarily burdened by others. Be totally selfish.

It does not look very religious when I say be totally selfish. To me it is the only religion because only

when you are REALLY selfish can you do something for others. Unless you have something, how can you
do? How can you help? How can you love? How can there be compassion? Within you are nothing and you
go on serving others and thinking about others. That is only an escape to forget yourself. In this meditation
camp do not do that. Remember yourself and forget others.

And the last thing: in the meditations, do not do them partially, do not do them half-heartedly. Nothing

will come out of it. Meditation is not mathematical. Do not think, "If I do fifty percent, then at least fifty
percent will be the outcome." No, zero will be the outcome. Only a one-hundred-percent effort can bring
you any results; less will not do.

It is just like heating water. At a particular degree, a hundred degrees, it evaporates. Do not think that at

fifty degrees half will evaporate. It will not evaporate at all; it will just become lukewarm. I do not want you
to become lukewarm here. Be either hot or cold. If you are cold then leave! No need to make any effort
unnecessarily. Why tire yourself? If you are a hundred percent hot, then be here and you will evaporate. I
guarantee that; that is absolutely certain.

If you make a one-hundred-percent effort, if you do not withhold yourself, if you melt in the process

completely and forget yourself, if you abandon yourself completely in it, the thing for which you have been
hankering for lives together can happen. It can happen in a single moment -- only a totality of abandonment
is needed.

We will be doing three meditations a day in a group. That too is for a spec-ific reason: because you are

individuals only on the top. Deep down you are not individuals. We belong to each other; we are rooted in
one consciousness. So a group meditation can be a tremendous experience. You are not alone there. If you
can abandon yourself, if you can surrender, if you can melt completely, then the group soul takes you over,
you are not there. Then the group dances and you dance as part of it. Then the group feels blissful and you
feel blissful as part of it. Then the group moves, sways, dances, and you are part of it. Abandon yourself
totally, and then the group takes you over. It becomes a fast, strong current and you are simply taken over.

These three group meditations are not individual meditations. You start as an individual, but sooner or

later you are not there and the group soul has started functioning. And when the group soul starts
functioning, you have entered the divine. So do not remain individuals, that is false, egoistic. Melt down,
and things will start happening to you.

Many things are possible, and I hope they will happen to you. If you are really ready, if you have been

dreaming about them, hoping about them -- if you have come here not as a casual visitor but as a seeker, to
stake something, to accept the challenge and to move into the greatest adventure that is possible to human
consciousness -- then everything can happen to you.
Now I will take the sutra:

AUM, MAY BRAHMAN PROTECT US BOTH. MAY HE NOURISH US BOTH. MAY WE BOTH ACHIEVE
ENERGY. MAY THIS STUDY MAKE US BOTH ILLUMINED. MAY WE NEVER HATE EACH OTHER. AUM,
PEACE, PEACE, PEACE.

It is beautiful. The teacher and the taught both are praying to the ultimate -- the disciple and master both

are praying to the ultimate.

AUM, MAY BRAHMAN PROTECT US BOTH.

Because as a master or as a disciple, you are not real. The master is a division, the disciple is a division.

The master is a fragment and the disciple is also a fragment. Both are praying that the ultimate should take
care, should take control. The master will lose himself as the master and the disciple will lose himself as the
disciple. They will become one; they will melt down into a deeper reality.

MAY BRAHMAN PROTECT US BOTH.

Now forget the Upanishad. We are here and let this prayer be yours:

MAY BRAHMAN PROTECT US BOTH.

I should not function here as an individual, you should not function here as an individual. Rather, we

should become one. I am ready. If you are also ready to meet me there is no difficulty. And then it is not
that I am leading you toward something, not that you are led by me but we are both moving toward
something -- together. I am not the leader and you are not the led. I am not the teacher and you are not the
taught. We both are moving toward the deeper reality together. No one is the teacher and no one is the
taught. This is the feeling of the prayer.

MAY BRAHMAN PROTECT US BOTH. MAY HE NOURISH US BOTH. MAY WE BOTH ACHIEVE ENERGY.
MAY THIS STUDY MAKE US BOTH ILLUMINED. MAY WE NEVER HATE EACH OTHER. AUM, PEACE,
PEACE, PEACE.

There is every possibility that the disciple may start hating the master because if you love, the

possibility of hate is always there. If you love the master, then the other part of that love is hate. And when
you love, the hate can erupt at any moment. Hate is part of it. Really, hate and love are not two things but
two aspects. Hate is not against love; it is the counterpart of it -- the other aspect of the coin. So when a
disciple loves the master, every moment the possibility is there that he may hate. And the possibility will
grow more when the master tries to transform him -- because then he seems dangerous, then he seems
destructive.

If I say, "Throw your knowledge," you will feel that I am like an enemy, because your knowledge is

your treasure. If I say, "Do not be serious; be like children," your ego will feel hurt. You will feel, "This
man is leading me towards something which will be stupid, foolish." You can start hating me at any
moment. If I am REALLY bent upon transforming you, mutating you, then the possibility is always more
and more that you will start hating me.
That is why the master says:

MAY THIS STUDY MAKE US BOTH ILLUMINED. MAY WE NEVER HATE EACH OTHER.

And this sentence is really something -- something exceptional, extraordinary: MAY THIS STUDY

MAKE US BOTH ILLUMINED. The master is already illumined; otherwise he is not the master. The
disciple is not illumined; otherwise there is no need to be a disciple. But the master says, MAY THIS
STUDY illumine us both -- MAKE US BOTH ILLUMINED. This is really subtle. The master is awakened,
but this awakening is his own experience, not the disciple's. The disciple only believes that the master is
awakened; he cannot know it. And when the master and disciple move as a couple, as a pair, not different
and separate but together, then the disciple will come to know, when the awakening comes, that both have
become awakened, both have become buddhas.

This is one meaning; another meaning is also there. You can be illumined alone; that is one experience.

But when you move with someone else and the illumination happens to both, it is something else again; it is
not the same.

Buddha is illumined, enlightened, under the bodhi tree. This is individual illumination; he has come to

an individual awakening. But the whole world around him, millions and millions of souls around him, are

walking in sleep. Buddha moves among these sleepwalkers and tries to awaken them. When-ever someone
is awakened, Buddha's own illumination is increased.

Remember, whereas before one lamp was burning in the darkness, now two lamps are there. And then a

third one becomes awakened and three lamps are burning, and a fourth one is awakened and the light goes
on growing. The light goes on growing until Buddha is no longer an individual.

So whenever and wherever enlightenment happens, it is his enlightenment also. This is deep and subtle

but worth remembering always, that a buddha's enlightenment also goes on growing. Whenever a disciple
awakens, Buddha's light grows.

Buddha is already awakened; there is no problem about it. It is just like when I burn a lamp in a room

and the room is lighted: there is no darkness. Then I bring another lamp, and the light increases. Then I
bring a third lamp, and the light increases more. The whole world goes on becoming filled with more and
more light whenever a master is capable of helping a disciple to be enlightened.

This seer says a wonderful thing. No one has said it anywhere:

MAY THIS STUDY MAKE US BOTH ILLUMINED....
AUM, MAY MY LIMBS BECOME STRONG. ALSO, LET MY SPEECH, PRANA -- VITAL AIR -- SIGHT,
HEARING, AND ALL THE SENSE ORGANS BE VIGOROUS.

That is what I am saying to you. Allow your body to be relived by you. Do not separate it; be joined

together with it; move into it deeply. When you move deeply into it, everything becomes strong, alive, new.

ALSO LET MY SPEECH, PRANA, SIGHT, HEARING, AND ALL THE SENSE ORGANS BE VIGOROUS.
THE ENTIRE EXISTENCE IS THE BRAHMAN OF THE UPANISHADS. MAY I NEVER DENY BRAHMAN.

This is one of the most revolutionary things ever uttered.

MAY I NEVER DENY BRAHMAN; MAY BRAHMAN NOT DENY ME. LET THERE BE NO DENIAL AT ALL.
LET THERE BE NO DENIAL AT LEAST ON MY PART.

Do not deny, because everything is Brahman, everything is that absolute. So whenever you deny, you

deny him. Whenever you condemn -- and you may condemn whomsoever you like -- whatsoever you
condemn, you condemn him. If you condemn a thief, if you condemn a murderer, he is condemned because
only he is there. That is why this is one of the most revolutionary sayings.

THE ENTIRE EXISTENCE IS THE BRAHMAN.... MAY I NEVER DENY BRAHMAN in any way --

conscious or unconscious, open or hidden. MAY I NEVER DENY BRAHMAN. LET THERE BE NO
DENIAL AT ALL.

The negative mind, the denying mind, is the irreligious mind. The mind which goes on saying no, which

does not have the capacity and courage to say yes, is the irreligious mind. The religious mind is a
yea-saying mind. Even if there is something which looks wrong to you and your whole mind feels like
condemning it, a religious mind will say, "It appears to me that way, but who knows? It is my judgment that
it is wrong, but it may not be so -- because what is the value of my judgment?"

Some people brought a woman to Jesus and they said, "She has committed adultery, so she has to be

killed. And this has been the law -- to kill her with stones, by throwing stones at her."

Jesus said, "The law is true, but only those persons can throw stones at her who have not committed

adultery ever -- not even in the mind. So come forward only those persons who have not committed
adultery, actually or in imagination."

The crowd had stones; they were standing ready to kill her. But now people started dispersing because

there was no one who had not committed adultery in the mind.

Finally, Jesus and the woman were left. The crowd had dispersed. The woman said, "I have done wrong!

I am guilty, punish me."

But Jesus said, "Who am I to punish you? Who am I to punish you or condemn you? It is between you

and your God."

This is the attitude of the religious man: no condemnation. Who are you to condemn? -- you who are

self-appointed, unnecessarily creating problems for yourself and others! And do not deny. Denial goes deep:
you deny your body, you deny your senses, you deny everything. You have become a great denier. And
then, when you become suffocated, you cry and you say, "Why this anguish? Why this misery?" This

misery is created by you. A person who goes on denying everything will become more and more shrunken,
frozen inside. He cannot do anything: everything is wrong. He cannot eat this, he cannot love in this way, he
cannot move in this way, he cannot do this or that. Only cannots and cannots all around him -- denials and
denials. Then life becomes suffocated. Then you feel miserable.

This is one of the most revolutionary sayings ever uttered -- that there should be no denial at all: "Let

there be no denial at least on my part." This goes even deeper. Look at the beauty of it. There is every
possibility that if I say to you, "Do not deny," and someone denies, you will deny him. Why are YOU
denying? If I say, "Do not condemn" and someone condemns, you will condemn him. The mind goes on
playing tricks. In new shapes it brings back all the old diseases again and again.

I was talking to a woman who has a great condemning mind. She goes on condemning everyone.

Whenever she comes to me she goes on condemning this and that. Then I told her, "This is not good. I do
not say that whatsoever you say is not true. It may be; that is not the point. Your condemning is wrong."

So she said, "If you say that, then I will not condemn anybody."
The next day she came again and she said, "Another of your disciples is condemning. He is not good."

Now the definition has changed of what is good and what is bad but the condemnation continues. Now HE
is not good.
The rishi says:

LET THERE BE NO DENIAL AT ALL. LET THERE BE NO DENIAL AT LEAST ON MY PART. WHATEVER
VIRTUES ARE IN THE UPANISHADS, MAY THEY ABIDE IN I WHO AM DEVOTED TO THE ATMAN. MAY
THEY ABIDE IN ME. AUM, PEACE, PEACE, PEACE.

The master is really the home, the abode, of all the virtues. Whatsoever the Upanishads teach,

whatsoever virtues are there, they are nothing compared to the heart of a master. The deepest virtue is in his
humility, humbleness. He still goes on praying that all the virtues which the Upanishads sing about "should
abide in me, they should not leave me, they should remain in my heart."

An authentic humbleness goes on praying: that is the point. It is never non-prayerful. Even when

everything has been achieved the prayer continues -- because prayer is humbleness, because prayer is
simplicity, because prayer is innocence. Even if the ultimate is achieved, the prayer goes on continuing.

I have heard about one Sufi mystic, Bayazid. He became enlightened, but still he was praying one day,

just as ever. So one of his disciples became disturbed and he said, "Master, you need not pray. You are
already enlightened. Why are you praying?"

Bayazid is reported to have said, "Before I prayed for enlightenment, now also I pray for

enlightenment."

The disciple couldn't understand and said, "What do you mean?"
The master said, "I prayed so that enlightenment may happen to me. Now it has happened, and I pray in

thankfulness, in gratitude that it has happened." But prayer continues -- the same prayer.

Prayer is an attitude. The master is the abode of all virtues. Of course, the Upanishads are created by the

masters, not vice versa. No Upanishad can create a master, and a single master can create all the
Upanishads. But the master says:

WHATEVER VIRTUES ARE IN THE UPANISHADS, MAY THEY ABIDE IN I WHO AM DEVOTED TO THE
ATMAN. MAY THEY ABIDE IN ME. AUM, PEACE, PEACE, PEACE.

The Supreme Doctrine

Chapter #2

Chapter title: Transcending the Basic Duality of Sex

9 July 1973 am in Mt Abu

Archive code: 7307090

ShortTitle: DOCTRN02

Audio:

Yes

Video:

No

Length: 71 mins

INVOCATION

AT WHOSE DESIRE AND BY WHOM IMPELLED DOES THE MIND ALIGHT ON ITS OBJECTS? BY WHOM
IMPELLED DOES THE CHIEF PRANA -- VITAL FORCE -- PROCEED TO ITS FUNCTION? BY WHOM
IMPELLED DO MEN UTTER THIS SPEECH? WHAT DEVA OR GOD DIRECTS THE EYES AND THE
EARS?
IT -- THE ATMAN -- IS THE EAR OF THE EAR, THE MIND OF THE MIND, THE SPEECH OF THE SPEECH,
THE PRANA OF THE PRANA, AND THE EYE OF THE EYE. WISE MEN SEPARATING THE ATMAN FROM
THESE -- SENSE FUNCTIONS -- RISE OUT OF SENSE LIFE AND ATTAIN TO IMMORTALITY.

Life is not there at its maximum when you are born; it is at its minimum. If you do stick at that, you will

have a life which is just near death -- just a borderline life. By birth, only an opportunity is given, only an
opening is made.

Life has to be achieved. Birth is just a beginning, not the end. But normally we stay at the point of birth.

That is why death happens. If you stay at the point of birth you will die. If you can grow beyond birth you
can grow beyond death. Remember this very deeply: death is not against life; death is against birth. Life is
something else. In death only birth ends and in birth only death begins. Life is something totally different.
You have to attain it, achieve it, actualize it. It is given to you as a seed, just as a potentiality -- something
which can be but which is not already there.

You have every chance of missing it. You can be alive because you are born, but that is not synonymous

with really being in life. Life is your effort to actualize the potentiality. Hence, the meaning of religion;
otherwise there is no meaning in religion. If life begins with birth and ends in death, then there is no
meaning for religion. Then religion is futile, nonsense. If life does not begin with birth, then religion has
some meaning. Then it becomes the science of how to evolve life out of birth. And the more you move away
from birth in life, the more you move away from death also because death and birth are parallel, similar, the
same -- two ends of one process. If you move away from the one, you are simultaneously moving away
from the other.

Religion is a science to achieve life. Life is beyond death. Birth dies; life, never. To achieve this life you

have to do something. Birth is given to you. Your parents have done something: they have loved each other,
they have been melting into each other, and out of their life force, melting into each other, a new
phenomenon, a new seed -- you -- is born. But you have not done anything for it: it is a gift. Remember,
birth is a gift. That is why all the cultures pay so much respect to parents -- it is a gift, and you cannot repay
it. The debt cannot be repaid. What can you do to repay it? Life has been given to you, but you have not
done anything for it.

Religion can give you a new birth, a rebirth. You can be reborn. But this birth will happen through some

alchemical change within you. Just as the first birth happened through two life forces meeting without you
-- they created an opportunity for you to enter, to be born; that is a deep alchemy -- so a similar thing has to
be done now within you. Your parents met -- your mother and your father. Two forces, feminine and
masculine, were meeting to create an opportunity for some new thing to be born. Two opposite forces were
meeting, two polarities were meeting. And whenever two polarities meet, something new is born, a new
synthesis is achieved. A similar thing has to happen within you.

You also have two polarities within you, the feminine and the masculine. Let me explain it a little more

in detail.... Because your body is born out of two polarities: cells from your mother and cells from your
father, they create your body. You have both types of cells -- those which came from your mother and those
which came from your father. Your body consists of two polarities, feminine and masculine. You are both,

everyone is both. Whether you are man or woman it makes no difference. If you are a man you have a
woman within you: your mother is there. If you are a woman you have a man within you: your father is
there. They can again meet within you. And the whole yoga, the whole tantra, the alchemy, the whole
process of religion, is how to create an orgasm, a deep intercourse between the polarities within you. And
when they meet within you a new type of being is born, a new life becomes alive.

If you are a man, then your conscious is masculine and your unconscious is feminine. If you are a

woman your conscious is feminine and your unconscious is masculine. Your conscious and unconscious
must meet so that a new birth becomes possible. What to do for their meeting to happen? Bring them nearer.
You have created a separation; you have created all types of barriers. You do not allow them to meet. You
try to exist with the conscious and you go on suppressing the unconscious. You do not allow it.

If a man starts weeping and crying, someone is bound to say immediately, "What are you doing? You

are doing something womanish, feminine." The man stops immediately. The masculine is not expected to
weep and cry. But you have the possibility; the unconscious is there. You have moments of feminineness,
you have moments of masculineness; everyone does.

A woman can become ferocious, a male, in some moods, in some moments. But then she will suppress.

She will say, "This is not womanlike." We go on creating a separation, a distance. That distance has to be
thrown away; your conscious and unconscious must come nearer. Only then can they meet, only then can
they have a deep intercourse. An orgasm can happen WITHIN you. That orgasm is known as spiritual bliss.

One type of orgasm is possible between your body and the body of the polar opposite sex; it can happen

only for a single moment because you meet only on the periphery. The peripheries meet and then they
separate. Another type, a deeper type of orgasm, can happen within. But then you meet at the center and
there is no need to separate again. Sexual ecstasy can only be momentary; spiritual ecstasy can be eternal.
Once attained you need not lose it. Really, once attained it is difficult to lose it -- impossible to lose it. It
becomes such an integration that the fragments disappear completely.

That is why when someone asked Buddha, "Who are you? A deva, a heavenly being?" he said, "No!"

And the questioner went on asking. Then the questioner became desperate because whenever he asked
Buddha who he is, if he is this or that, Buddha went on saying, "No!" Then finally he asked, "At least you
must say that you are male. You must say yes." Buddha said, "No!" "Then are you a female?" the man asked
desperately. Buddha said, "No!" -- because a new unity has come into being which is neither male nor
female.

When your inner man and inner woman meet, you are neither: you transcend sex. That is the meaning of

the oldest Indian image of Shiva as ARDHANARISHWAR -- half man, half woman. That is the symbol of
the inner meeting. Shiva is neither now: he is half man, half woman -- both and neither. He transcends sex.

Remember, unless you transcend sex, you cannot transcend duality. This is a deep psychological

problem -- not only psychological but ontological also. If you remain a man or a woman, how can you
conceive of the oneness of existence? You cannot. Being a man, you cannot conceive of yourself being one
with a woman. Being a woman, you cannot conceive of yourself being one with a man. A duality persists.

Sex is the basic duality. We have been arguing about and discussing for centuries how to attain the

nondual. But we go on discussing it as if it is some intellectual matter: "How to attain the nondual?" It is not
an intellectual matter; it is ontological, existential. You can attain the nondual only when the duality within
you disappears. It is not a question of meditating on the nondual and thinking, "I am the Brahman." Nothing
will come out of it; you are simply deluding yourself.

You cannot attain nonduality unless the basic duality of sex disappears within you, unless you come to a

moment when you cannot say who you are -- man or woman. And this happens only when your inner man
and woman melt so much that they dissolve into each other -- and all the boundaries are lost, and all the
distinctions are lost, and they are one. When the inner orgasm, the spiritual ecstasy happens, you are neither.
And only when you are neither is life born.

In a single moment of meeting between your parents, your mother and father, you were born -- in a

single moment of meeting! Remember, life is always out of meeting, never out of separation. Life comes
only in a deep meeting, in a deep communion. For a single moment your father and mother were one, they
were not two. They were functioning as one being. In that oneness you were born.

Life always comes out of oneness. And the life that I am talking about, or Jesus talks about and Buddha

talks about, is the life which will happen inside you, within you. Again a communion, a melting, happens,
and the two sexualities within you dissolve.

Remember, I say again and again that sex is the basic duality, and unless you transcend sex the Brahman

cannot be achieved. All other dualities are just reflections and reflections of this basic duality. Birth and
death -- again a duality. They will disappear when you are neither male or female. When you have a
consciousness which goes beyond both, birth and death disappear, matter and mind disappear, this world
and that world disappear, heaven and hell disappear. All dualities disappear when the basic duality within
you disappears, because all dualities are simply echoing and re-echoing the basic division within you.

That is why the old, ancient Indian seers have put the Brahman in the third category. He is neither male

nor female. They call him NAPUNSAK -- impotent. They call him the third sex, the ultimate reality of the
third sex. The word brahman belongs to NAPUNSAK LING: it is neither or it is both. But one thing is
certain: it transcends the duality. That is why other conceptions of God look immature, childish. Christians
call him father. This is childish, because then where is the mother? And how is this son Jesus born? And
they say Jesus is the only son but where is the mother? The father alone giving birth? If the father alone
gives birth to Jesus, then he is both -- mother and father. Then do not call him father. Then the duality
comes in.

Or, some religions have called the ultimate being the mother. Then where is the father? These are just

anthropomorphic feelings. Man cannot even think about the ultimate in any other terms than human, so he
calls it father or mother. But those who have known and those who have transcended the anthropocentric
attitude, the man-oriented attitude -- they know that he is neither. He transcends both; he is a meeting of
both.

In the ultimate, mother and father both are merged. Or, if you will allow me the expression, I would like

to say: the Brahman is mother and father in eternal orgasm -- one in an eternal ecstasy of meeting. And out
of that meeting comes the whole creation, out of that meeting comes the whole play, out of that meeting all
that exists is born.

Here, in this meditation camp, we will be trying to bring your unconscious and conscious nearer, your

feminine and your masculine nearer. You will have to help me, to cooperate with me. In the meditation
techniques you have to destroy all the barriers between your conscious mind and the unconscious. And you
have to be free, as totally free as possible because suppression has created the barriers.

So do not suppress. If you feel like screaming, scream. The very scream will bring your conscious and

unconscious nearer. If you feel like dancing, dance. The very dance will bring your conscious and
unconscious nearer. Really, dance can be very helpful, because in dance your body and your mind are in a
deep meeting. It is not only the body which is moving; within the body your consciousness is also moving.
Really, a dance becomes a dance only when your body is filled with the grace of your spirit, when your
spirit is flowing out of your body, when your spirit has taken a rhythm with the body.

All the old religions were dancing religions. They were more authentic. Our new modes of religion are

just false. You go into a temple or into a church or into a GURUDWARA and you just verbalize there.
Someone preaches and you listen. It has become cerebral. Or, you pray and you talk with God. Even with
God you use language. You cannot be silent with him; you cannot believe that he can understand you
without your talking. You have no faith! You do not trust him; you want to explain everything to him.

I have heard: one mother overheard her small child praying in the night to God, and he was saying,

"Dear God, beloved God, stop Tommy from throwing things at me -- and by the way, I have told you this
before."

But this is what we all are doing: praying to God to "stop Tommy from throwing things at me." Even if

you go to the Vedic RISHIS they are doing the same: "Do this; do not do that." You cannot allow him to do
whatsoever is his will. You give your own program. And if he follows you, you are a believer and if he
doesn't follow you you will say that he doesn't exist. He can exist only if he exists as your follower.

But existence cannot follow you. Existence is greater than you; existence is the whole. You are just a

fragment, and a fragment cannot be followed -- the fragment has to follow the whole. This is what a
religious mind is: the fragment following the whole, the fragment surrendering to the whole, the fragment
not struggling, the fragment in a letgo.

Religion has become verbal, linguistic. Here we will try to bring the authentic religion. The secretmost

core of it is that you must come to it totally -- with your mind, your body, your emotions, everything.
Nothing is denied. You cry and you weep and you laugh and you dance, and you sit in silence. You do all
the things that your inner being happens to do; you do not force it to do anything. You do not say, "This is
not good; I should not do it." You allow a spontaneous flow. Then the unconscious will come nearer and
nearer to the conscious.

We have created the gap through suppression: "Don't do this, don't do that," and we go on suppressing.

Then the unconscious is suppressed. It becomes dark. It becomes a part where we never move in our own
house. Then we are divided. And, remember, then there are perversions.

If you allow your unconscious to come nearer to your conscious, too much sex-obsession will disappear.

If you are a man and you deny your unconscious, you are denying your inner woman; then you will be
attracted to outer women too much. It will become a perversion because then it is a substitute. The inner
femininity has been denied; now the outer femininity becomes obsessive to you. You will think and think
about it; now your whole mind will become sexual. If you are a woman and you have denied the man, then
'man' will take possession of you. Then whatsoever you do or think, the basic color will remain sexual.

So much fantasy about sex is because you have denied your inner other. So now this is a compensation.

Now you are compensating for something which you have denied to yourself. And look at the absurdity: the
more you get obsessed with the other sex the more you feel afraid; the more you deny the inner the more
you suppress it; and the more you suppress it the more you become obsessed.

Your so-called BRAHMACHARIS are totally obsessed with sex for twenty-four hours a day; they are

bound to be. It is natural: nature takes revenge. To me, BRAHMACHARYA -- celibacy -- means you have
come so near to your own feminine or your own masculine, so near that there is no substitution for it. You
are not obsessed with it; you do not think about it. It disappears.

When your own unconscious is nearer to you, you need not substitute it with someone else outside. And

then a miracle happens. If your unconscious is so near, then whenever you love someone, a woman or a
man, that love is not pathological. If your unconscious is so near, that love is not pathological. It is not
possessive, it is not mad. It is very silent, tranquil, calm, cool. Then the other is not a substitute and you are
not dependent on the other. Rather, the other becomes just a mirror.

Remember the difference: the other is not now a substitute, something which you have denied. The other

becomes a mirror of your inner part, of your unconscious. Your wife, your beloved, becomes just a mirror.
In that mirror you see your unconscious. Your lover, your husband, your friend, becomes a mirror. And in
that mirror you can see your unconscious clearly mirrored, projected outside. Then wife and husband can
help each other to bring their unconscious more and more near.

And a moment comes, and it must come if life has been a really successful effort, when wife and

husband are no more wife and husband: they have become companions on the eternal journey. They help
each other; they have become mirrors to each other. They reveal the unconscious of the other and each helps
the other to know himself or herself. Now there is no pathology, no dependence.

Remember one thing more: if you deny your unconscious, if you hate your unconscious, if you suppress

your woman or man within, then you can go on saying that you love the outer woman but deep down you
will hate her also. If you deny your own woman, you will hate the woman you love. If you deny your own
man, you will hate the man you love. Your love will just be on the surface. Deep down it will be a hatred. It
is bound to be so, it has to be so, because you will not allow the other to become the mirror of your
unconscious. And you will be afraid also. Man is afraid of woman. Go and ask your so-called saints. They
are so afraid of women. Why? They are afraid of the unconscious, and the woman becomes a mirror.
Whatsoever they have hidden, she reveals.

If you have suppressed something, then the other polar opposite can reveal it immediately. If you have

been suppressing sex and you are sitting in meditation in a lonely place and a beautiful woman passes by,
suddenly your unconscious will assert itself. That which has been hidden will be revealed in the woman
passing and you will be against that woman. You are foolish -- because that woman is not doing anything at
all, she is just passing there. She may not even know that you are there; she is not doing anything to you.
She is a mirror, but the mirror is passing and in that mirror your unconscious is reflected.

The whole so-called spirituality is based on fear. What is the fear? The fear is that the other can reveal

the unconscious and you do not want to know anything about it. But not knowing will not help, suppression
will not help. It will remain there. It will become a cancer and by and by it will assert itself more and more,
and ultimately you will come to feel that you have been a failure and that whatsoever you have suppressed
has become victorious and you are defeated.

My whole effort is to bring your unconscious nearer to your conscious. You become so much acquainted

with it so that it is not unknown. You become friendly to it, then the fear disappears -- the fear of the polar
opposite. And then the hatred also disappears because then the other is just a mirror, helpful. You feel
gratitude. Lovers will be grateful to each other if the unconscious is not suppressed and they will be hateful
to each other if the unconscious is suppressed.

Allow your whole being to come into function. Your emotions are imprisoned, encapsulated. Your body

movements are imprisoned. Your body, your heart, have become just as if they are not part of you. You
simply carry them along like a burden. Allow your emotions full play. In the meditations we will be doing,
allow your emotions full play and enjoy the play, because many new things will be revealed to you.

You have not been screaming. You have not screamed; you cannot remember when you last screamed.

When the scream comes to you and takes possession of you, you will become afraid of what is happening
because then you are losing control. But lose control: your control is the poison. Lose control completely.
Allow your emotions to erupt like a volcano. You will be surprised at what is hidden in you. You may not
even be able to recognize that it is your face.

Allow your body to have full play also, so that every cell of the body becomes vibrant, alive. Just as a

bird alights on a branch and the branch starts wavering -- becomes vibrant, alive -- let your being alight on
your body and allow your body to be vibrant, alive, alive with the inner force. And suddenly you will enter
a new door unknown before. You will open a new dimension of your own existence and that dimension will
lead you to the ultimate, to the divine.
Now the sutra:

AT WHOSE DESIRE AND BY WHOM IMPELLED DOES THE MIND ALIGHT ON ITS OBJECTS? BY WHOM
IMPELLED DOES THE CHIEF PRANA -- VITAL FORCE -- PROCEED TO ITS FUNCTION? BY WHOM
IMPELLED DO MEN UTTER THIS SPEECH? WHAT DEVA OR GOD DIRECTS THE EYES AND THE
EARS?

The master is asking what is the original source in you -- of your entire life, of all your movements, of

all your expressions. What force creates desire? What force impels you to be alive? What force gives you
the lust for life? There must be a hidden force, in a way inexhaustible: it goes on and on; it never tires.

AT WHOSE DESIRE AND BY WHOM IMPELLED DOES THE MIND ALIGHT ON ITS OBJECTS?

When you look at a beautiful woman or a beautiful flower or a beautiful sunset, who impels you? Who

throws you outward? Who is the inner source of all your activity?

The Upanishads say that whatsoever you do, the doer is always the Brahman -- WHATSOEVER you do,

you are not the doer. The doer is always the Brahman. If you run after a woman filled with lust the
Upanishads say it is also the Brahman. Because of this, Christian missionaries could never understand what
type of religion Hinduism is. Even lust is spiritual because the original source is always the Brahman.
Whatsoever you do with your energy, he is moving in it.

There is a story.... The god Brahma created the world and he fell in love with it. Christian theologians

cannot understand it. Naturally, it is difficult to understand. Brahma goes on creating other beings and he
goes on falling in love with them! He creates a cow and he falls in love and becomes the bull -- and on and
on, until the whole creation is created. He creates the cow and he becomes the bull. He goes on dividing
himself into two polar opposites.

The story is just beautiful, if you can understand it. He goes on dividing himself into two polar

opposites. And remember, the reverse is the process to reach him again. Go on nondividing; go on meeting
with the polar opposite. He creates the world through polar opposites. He creates the cow but he is the cow
because he creates the cow out of himself. Then he creates the bull but he is the bull. He is both the
feminine and the masculine.

Then he follows the cow, and the cow tries to escape the bull. The cow tries to hide and through her

hiding she invites the bull. This is a hide-and-seek. That is why Hindus say the whole creation is just a play
-- a play of the same energy dividing itself into polar opposites and then playing hide-and-seek.

You are the Brahman. Your husband is the Brahman; your wife is the Brahman. And the Brahman is

playing hide-and-seek. The whole idea is simply superb. The reverse is the process to reach the ultimate
again: do not play hide-and-seek. Allow the divided parts to mingle into each other. Let them merge, and
the Brahman arises again -- the one.
This master asks:

AT WHOSE DESIRE AND BY WHOM IMPELLED DOES THE MIND ALIGHT ON ITS OBJECTS?

BY WHOM IMPELLED DOES THE CHIEF PRANA -- VITAL FORCE -- PROCEED TO ITS
FUNCTION? -- who breathes in you? BY WHOM IMPELLED DO MEN UTTER THIS SPEECH? -- who
speaks in you? WHAT DEVA OR GOD DIRECTS THE EYES AND EARS? -- who is directing your
senses?

The Upanishads are not against the senses. They are spiritually sensuous; they do not deny. Denial is not

their slogan at all, denial is not their attitude. They accept and they say that even in the senses the divine is
moving because there is nothing else to move. They make everything sacred, they make everything holy.
They do not condemn, they do not say this is sin. Sin is unknown to the Upanishads, absolutely unknown.
They say there is no sin -- that everything is a play. Even in sin, even in the sinner, the same energy is
moving.

Everything becomes holy. And if you can say with your full heart that everything is holy, holy, holy,

YOU will become holy immediately because the very feeling that everything is holy and sacred makes the
sin disappear. Sin is created by condemnation and the more you condemn, the more sinners you create.

The whole world has become a great crowd of sinners because everything has been condemned --

everything! There is not a single thing which you can do which has not been condemned by someone or
other. With everything condemned, you become a sinner. Then guilt arises -- and when there is guilt you
can pray but the prayer is poisonous; it comes out of your guilt. When you are guilty you can pray but that
prayer is based on fear. That prayer is not love; it cannot be. Through guilt love is impossible. Feeling
yourself condemned, a sinner, how can you love?

The Upanishads say that everything is holy because he is the source of all. Whether or not the river

looks dirty to you is irrelevant. He is the source of all -- the dirty river and the sacred Ganges, to both he
gives the energy. To the sinner to the saint, he gives the energy. Really, there is no story like this but I
would like a story like this: he created the sinner, then he became the saint, just like the cow and the bull,
and then the hide-and-seek. He created the saint and then he became the sinner and then the
hide-and-seek....

Have total acceptance of whatsoever exists. Just by being in existence, it is holy.
IT -- THE ATMAN, or the Brahman -- IS THE EAR OF THE EAR, THE MIND OF THE MIND, THE

SPEECH OF THE SPEECH, THE PRANA OF THE PRANA, AND THE EYE OF THE EYE. WISE MEN
SEPARATING THE ATMAN FROM THESE -- SENSE FUNCTIONS -- RISE OUT OF SENSE LIFE
AND ATTAIN TO IMMORTALITY.

Whatsoever you do it is him -- it is the functioning of him, of the total. The total functions in you. When

you breathe, what do you do? You do nothing. The breathing comes in and goes out. Rather, he breathes in
you; you cannot do anything. If the breath leaves you, what will you do? If it doesn't come back, what will
you do? If it has left then it has left and if it does not come back you cannot do anything. Really, when it is
not coming you are no more. Who is there to do anything? He breathes, not you. The emphasis is on the
total, not on the individual.

This has to be constantly remembered, because we go on forgetting this. Our emphasis is on the

individual, the I: "I am breathing, I am alive, I am seeing you." No! The master says he -- the Brahman -- is
seeing through the eyes, he is the eye of the eye. When I speak, I am not speaking: he speaks. And when
you listen, YOU are not listening: he listens. He becomes the cow, he becomes the bull; he becomes the
speaker, he becomes the listener. It is a mysterious hide-and-seek, a great play, a great drama, beautiful, if
you can understand. He is everywhere -- in the listener, in the speaker, he is EVERYWHERE! And when
you are silent, he is silent within you. When you speak, he is speaking in you.

This emphasis is not only metaphysical, not only a doctrine. As a doctrine also it is superb. But it is to

help you toward a new realization. While speaking, if you can feel he is speaking, all the fever in it will be
lost. While fighting, if you can remember that he is fighting through you, the fight will become a drama.
While being silent, feel he is silent within you. And if the silence is disturbed and thoughts start moving,
you know that he is disturbed, not you. He has become the thoughts and now he is moving like clouds in
your inner sky. He is both, so why be worried? He is both!

When you are healthy he is healthy in you and when you are ill he is ill in you. You are totally

unworried; you need not come in. Your whole burden has been thrown upon him. That is why I say this is
not only metaphysical. It is one of the deepest techniques to transform your total being.

If he is doing everything, then why do you go on carrying yourself unnecessarily? He breathes and he is

born and he dies. When you die, he will die -- not you. Then why be afraid of death? You become
unconcerned. This unconcern relieves you of all burden. And this is the actual fact; this is not a
make-believe. This is the actual fact: whatsoever is happening is happening to the total. The individual is
just an illusion.

I have never been as an ego and I am not as an ego, and I cannot be; only he is. And when I say he, I

mean the total. Do not try to conceive of him as a person. He is not a person; he is the total -- the whole.
That which breathes in you breathes in the trees and that which sings in you sings in the birds and that

which dances in you dances in the rivers, in the brooks, in the springs, and that which speaks in you speaks
in the breeze passing through the trees. The total!

Just change the gestalt, just change the pattern. Do not emphasize the individual; move to the total. Then

what is the problem? Then there is no problem. With YOU enters every type of problem; with YOU enters
anguish and anxiety. Without any burden on you, you are liberated. You can become a MUKTA, a liberated
one, you can become a SIDDHA, this very moment. Just by realizing, feeling that "I am not and he is," the
past disappears and the future is no more because the future is created out of your worries, imagination,
projections. Then he will take care. Then whatsoever happens will happen and whatsoever happens will be
good because it is out of him.

This is what trust is. It is not that you believe in a God sitting upon some throne in heaven and guiding

everyone from there, a great controller, an engineer or something like that -- no! He is not the managing
director. He is not! There is neither any throne nor someone sitting on it. And faith doesn't mean that you
believe in a concept, in a philosophy. Faith means trust -- trusting the whole. Then everything is blissful.
How can anything else be? How can anything other than bliss be? You create misery because YOU come in.
Go out just as if a lamp has been put out. Go out... and then he is.

IT IS THE EAR OF THE EAR, THE MIND OF THE MIND, THE SPEECH OF THE SPEECH, THE PRANA OF
THE PRANA, AND THE EYE OF THE EYE.

Whatsoever appears on the surface, whatsoever it is, makes no difference. Always, hidden, he is there.

Look at me with full remembrance, with mindfulness that he is looking through you, and immediately the
quality of consciousness changes. Just now look at me: he is looking, he is the eye of the eye, and
immediately you are not there and a tremendous silence happens. The very quality of your being is different
when you look at me as if he is looking and not you.

You are listening to me: forget that I am here; he is here -- the total. The total has taken possession of

me, the total has become active in me, the total has changed me into his instrument. Look at me as if he is
speaking, listen to me as if he is speaking, and then everything is different. You are no more there... a
sudden flash and everything changes. It is not a question of time. You are not to practice it, you can see it
this very moment.

Look at me! You are not there; the total, the whole, has become the eyes; the whole has become the eyes

in you. You are just an expression of the will of the whole, of the desire of the whole. The whole has
become words through me, he is manipulating me, he is using me. And then, in this room, only he is. Then
the totality becomes one. Then the parts are lost and the fragments are no more and there is a deep orgasm
between the speaker and listener. Then you will feel the presence but the presence can come only if you
forget yourself.

Remembering God is not really a remembering of his name. Remembering God is not to go on chanting

"Rama, Rama, Krishna, Krishna"; that is useless, futile. Remembering him means forgetfulness of yourself.
If you are not, if you are forgotten, completely forgetful of yourself, abandoned, he is. When you are not,
suddenly he is -- and this can happen in a single moment.

I am reminded that after the second world war it happened in a small village in England that there was a

statue of Jesus just on the crossroads -- a beautiful statue with raised hands. And on the statue there was a
plate, and on that plate it was written: Come unto me.

In the second world war the statue was destroyed; a bomb fell upon it. And when there was restoration

work and the village was again coming to be alive after the war, they remembered the statue, so they tried to
find fragments of it. In the ruins the fragments were found and the statue was restored again. But the hands
could not be found. They were missing.

So the village council decided to ask the artist to make new hands. But one old man in the village who

was always seen sitting near the statue -- both when it was there and when it was not -- said, "No! Let Jesus
be without hands."

The council said, "Then what will we do about the plate underneath? It is written, 'Come unto me!' and it

had raised hands."

The old man said, "Change the plate and write there, 'Come unto me. I have no other hands than your

own.'"

And now the statue stands there without the hands, and written underneath is: Come unto me. I have no

other hands than yours.

In your hands he is moving, in your eyes he is moving, and in your heart he is beating -- the total. And

he has no other hands, remember. He has no other eyes, he has no other heart to beat. He is beating all over,
he is alive all over. This is the message.

IT IS THE EAR OF THE EAR, THE MIND OF THE MIND, THE SPEECH OF THE SPEECH, THE PRANA OF
THE PRANA, AND THE EYE OF THE EYE. WISE MEN SEPARATING THE ATMAN FROM THESE --
SENSE FUNCTIONS -- RISE OUT OF SENSE LIFE AND ATTAIN TO IMMORTALITY.

All these senses are the functions and he is the functionary within. Knowing this, you are not against the

senses. Knowing this, you simply change the emphasis. Then you are not obsessed with the senses; you are
always looking for the inner core. And the rishis say that by knowing this transcendence they attain
immortality. Remember, only YOU can die; life never dies. Because you are born, you will die; that is the
natural end to every birth. Life goes on... eternally moving; life never dies. Waves in it are born and they
die, and the riverlike life moves and moves and moves.

Once you come to feel the river within your wave, you are immortal. If you can realize him seeing

through you, breathing through you, you are immortal. Only this shell, this vehicle of the body, will
disappear. YOU will never disappear. You cannot disappear -- you have always been.

Sometimes you were a tree because the tree was the vehicle -- because he willed to be a tree through

you. Sometimes you were a cow because he willed himself to be a cow through you. Sometimes you were a
butterfly, sometimes a flower, sometimes a rock... but you have always been here. You have ALWAYS
been here! You are not a new visitor. No one is a new visitor; no one is a stranger. You have always been
here and now but with different vehicles. Sometimes a rock was the vehicle; now you are a man or a
woman: now this is a vehicle.

If you can understand and KNOW that the vehicle is just the vehicle, the vehicle can be changed. It will

have to be changed. But the inner one who goes on changing faces remains the same. That one is immortal,
life is immortal. You are mortal. And why are you mortal? -- because you become identified with the
vehicle. Moving in a cart you become the cart. Riding on the train you become the train. Flying in an
aircraft you become the aircraft. You go on forgetting that the aircraft, the cart, the train, the car, they are
vehicles.

You are not the vehicles; you are the total, and the total goes on changing its vehicles. Then you are

immortal. Remember, you cannot be immortal if you are identified with the body. You are immortal
knowing, transcending the body. The consciousness is immortal, the very aliveness is immortal.
The sutra says:

WISE MEN, TRANSCENDING THESE -- SENSE FUNCTIONS -- RISE OUT OF SENSE LIFE AND ATTAIN
TO IMMORTALITY.

And the more you feel the inner, the essential, the eternal, the immortal, the less and less you are

obsessed with the sense life. You can play it but you are not obsessed.

Krishna playing on his flute is not obsessed with the flute; Krishna dancing with his girlfriends, the

GOPIS, is not obsessed. It is just a play. Life becomes a play, not an obsession, when you know the
immortal.
Now get ready for the meditation.

The Supreme Doctrine

Chapter #3

Chapter title: Surrender and I Will Transform You

9 July 1973 pm in Mt Abu Meditation Camp

Archive code: 7307095

ShortTitle: DOCTRN03

Audio:

Yes

Video:

No

Length: 98 mins

The first question:

BELOVED OSHO,
YOU SAID THAT WHEN THE MASTER IS IN AN ABSENTLIKE PRESENCE AND THE DISCIPLE IS ALSO
ABSENTLIKE, THEN THE DIVINE WORK BEGINS. IF BOTH ARE TO BE ABSENTLIKE, THEN PLEASE
EXPLAIN THE ROLE OF THE MASTER IN THE SPIRITUAL ENDEAVOR.

There is no role as such. The role is possible only if the master exists as a person. If he exists as

somebody, then he can play a role. Really, our personality consists of nothing but roles. Your personality is
the many roles you go on playing and those roles are your faces. In the morning you have a different face, a
different role to play; in the office you have a different face; back home again you change your face. You go
on changing the whole day, moment to moment. Whenever you have to play a role, you create a face, you
become an actor.

The master is one who has stopped playing roles. He is not playing anything, he is not doing anything.

Really, he has come to understand that the doer is the total. The individual is in illusion if he thinks that he
is doing something. The master cannot think that he is helping the disciple or that he is endeavoring for his
transformation. All this happens of course: the transformation happens, the disciple changes, is reborn, but
this is not something done on the part of the master.

The master has become a nobody. He exists not as a presence but as an absence. Within him there is no

mind, within him there is no ego, within him there is no center. The center has been given back to the
divine; the ego has been surrendered. He has become a vehicle, he has become a passage -- just a flute. Now
the divine sings through it. Now no song belongs to the master -- nothing. How can he play a role? How can
he endeavor? How can he do something?

All these words -- do, role, endeavor, help -- are egocentric. They mean that the master is DOING

something. No, the master cannot do anything. He is not, but things HAPPEN around him. I am not saying
that the disciple will not be transformed: he WILL be transformed but he can only be transformed through a
master who is not doing anything. If the master is doing something, the disciple cannot be transformed. The
very effort on the part of the master shows that the master is not there yet. There is no question of effort.

The master exists as an absence, as a nobody. And this very fact becomes a tremendous force. This very

fact, this existence of a void, creates mysterious happenings around it. But the master is not doing them.
Remember, the river is flowing toward the sea but the river is not really flowing, not doing anything. This
flow is just nature. It is natural for the river to flow. There is no effort on the river's part. The tree is
growing; the tree is not doing anything -- there is no effort, no center, no ego to do. It is HAPPENING.

Life is a happening, and a man becomes a master when he has come to realize this. The total is doing,

and we are unnecessarily bothered and we unnecessarily interfere and we unnecessarily bring in our own
illusory centers -- because no individual can have any center.

One of the greatest Christian mystics, Meister Eckhart, has said that only God can say 'I'. No individual

can really say 'I' because the 'I belongs to the total. My hand cannot say 'I' because the I belongs to me. My
leg cannot say 'I' because the leg belongs to me and the I belongs to me. My leg, my hand, my eyes, they
cannot assert 'I' because they are fragments, parts of a great unity. In the same way you are not an entity in
yourself, you are just part of a great organic whole. You are just a fragment, an atomic cell in it. You cannot
say 'I'.

That is why all the religions say that the I is the only barrier because the I is the most fallacious thing

possible. It cannot belong to you. You do not know why you are born, you do not know who forces you into
life. No one asked you, no one asked about your choice. You simply find that one day you are alive. Then
who goes on breathing within you? You do not know.

Then suddenly one day you are no more. No one asked you. It is not your decision to be born and to die.

But something happens and goes on happening. Something happens and you are born, and something

happens... you are no more, you disappear again. How can you say 'I'? No decision of yours has been used --
NO DECISION! The I can belong only to the divine.

Then there is a problem and the problem is this: if the master cannot help, if the master cannot do, how

can the master promise? Now someone is showing me the wall hanging (OSHO INDICATES THE BLUE
BANNER SUSPENDED BEHIND HIM ON THE PODIUM) which states, "I have come not to teach, but to
awaken. Surrender and I will transform you. This is my promise."

Then how can I promise you? Then how can I say that I will transform you? Really, this is a trick. I am

not going to transform you -- I am no more there! But if you surrender you will be transformed. If you
surrender you WILL be transformed -- not that I will transform you, the very surrender brings you to the
point where transformation happens. And when it has happened, then you will know and you will laugh
because it has been a great joke...!

I cannot do anything. The very concept of doing is irrelevant: I am no more there. But you will not

understand that language. You can understand only the language of the I; hence, I have said, "I will
transform you." And it is true that you will be transformed. It is true that once you surrender there is no
barrier for your transformation: you will be reborn. And I am not doing anything; I cannot do anything.
Nothing is needed to transform you. You are enough.

But you have lost confidence and this trick is just to give you your confidence back. You have forgotten

your own possibility. You have forgotten who exists within you; that tremendous energy is hidden within
you, you have forgotten. Someone else is needed to tell you. You have the treasure and you have forgotten
it. I cannot give you the treasure: YOU ARE the treasure! I can simply show it to you, just give you an
indication.

When Jesus says, "I will deliver you, I will liberate you," or Buddha says, "I am your path, your way,"

when Krishna says to Arjuna, "Surrender to me and I will do everything for you," these are all tricks to help
those who have forgotten themselves. But the promise is true because it happens. Not that someone helps
you -- your own energy comes into being, your own energy becomes vital, your own sources are tapped,
your own being becomes active.

But you cannot understand the language of no-I. Hence, I have spoken in terms of I: "I have come not to

teach but to awaken." No one has come, no one can come. We have always been here, you and I. I cannot
come, I cannot go. There is nowhere to go and nowhere to come from. We have been in existence, we have
existed always. And who am I to teach you or awaken you? But you have forgotten your own potentiality,
your own possibility and some trick is needed to throw you back to yourself.

And remember, I am not doing this because I have much compassion for you. No, I have nothing of the

sort. I have no compassion at all for you. You do not need compassion. You are not slaves, you are not poor,
you are not beggars. You are divine in your own right; you are as divine as any Krishna or any Buddha.
Nothing is lacking there. Everything is present and you are fast asleep. And when I speak or when I teach or
when I appear to do something, it is not that I feel compassion for you -- no! This is just how it happens
within me to play this.

This again is just a play. I enjoy doing it; you need not be grateful toward me. I enjoy it. You need not

be at all in any debt toward me. I enjoy it, I love it! It is just as if a flower flowers and you pass nearby and
the flower gives you a gift of its perfume. Just like that something has flowered within me and you pass near
me and I present you a gift. If you take it I am grateful toward you; if you refuse it, you are your own
master.

Really, if this attitude can penetrate deep within you, then there is no master and no disciple. Then

relationship disappears. It must disappear! Only when there is no master and no disciple and the relationship
disappears does the divine start functioning.

When I am the master and you are the disciple, a duality exists. And there are so-called masters who go

on forcing upon you that you are the disciple and they are the masters, that they are higher and you are
lower, and they create a hierarchy. Really, they create a politics around it. That type of master will not be of
much help. They may be harmful, because they are not giving you that which already belongs to you. They
are again creating an illusion.

What I am doing here is not creating a relationship, really. Rather, on the contrary, I am trying to

dissolve the relationship. If we can be here without thinking in terms of master and disciple, if we can just
be here, present, alert, alive, the thing will happen. Wife and husband: it is a relationship. Father and son: it
is a relationship. Master and disciple? -- it is not a relationship at all. It only appears so but it is not a
relationship because the whole effort is to dissolve duality, and relationship exists in duality.

So a master is really trying not to be a master, and the master is trying for you not to be a disciple. The

whole effort is to bring you to a point where relationship disappears, where there are not two but simply a
presence. And when there is no relationship but you are alert and I am alert... remember, if you are alert and
I am alert, then I am not and you are not, and in that alertness the I is dissolved and the flames of two lamps
become one. Only in that oneness does the divine start working.

The divine works only in oneness; that is his mode of function. The more divided you are, the less he

can function; the more divided you are, the farther you move away from the divine. That is what I have
meant.

So two things about this question: one, the master is not doing anything, not playing any role. He is not

making any endeavor. It is not in any way an effort on his part. He has become alert, awakened, and now
something goes flowing through him. This flow is riverlike. Whenever this river moves it will make people
more alert. It is not that there is any effort on its part: this is its nature. So a master is by nature a master, not
by any effort. Wheresoever he moves he will be a master.

I remember one story about an Egyptian mystic, Dhun-Nun. Dhun-Nun always moved hidden in the

garb of a beggar, and he had even emperors as his disciples. One disciple asked him, one very rich disciple,
"Why do you move as a beggar? Why do you mix with the common masses and crowds? This is not good,
because you are a great master."

Dhun-Nun is reported to have said, "A master is by his nature a master, so wherever he moves he is a

master -- WHEREVER; it makes no difference. If he is standing in a crowd, there also he is a master. He is
the master and he is functioning and the crowd is being transformed by his presence, just by his presence."

It is said that in the Koran Mohammed says that no master should go to a rich man's house. If the rich

man wants to meet him, he should go to the master. Then one Sufi mystic, Bayazid, who was going to rich
men's houses and to the emperor's palace to teach there, was asked, "Why are you going against the
prophet? Mohammed says that no master should go to a rich man's house. There is no need. If the rich man
desires, then he should come to the master's feet. But you are moving even to the palace, so what is the
matter? Are you against the prophet, or don't you believe in the saying?"

Bayazid said, "You don't know the real thing. Mohammed is right, and I follow his teachings and his

saying. But whether the master goes to an emperor's house or an emperor comes to the master's hut, it is
always the master who changes the other. It makes no difference."

Basically, it is always the master to whom YOU come. Whether the master goes to the palace or the

emperor comes to the master's hut, it makes no difference. It is always the emperor who is coming to the
master because he is to be changed. HE will be changed.

Bayazid says that it is the nature of the master to change others; it is not an effort. Nothing is being done

by the master, simply his presence.... And if he appears to do something, that appearance is just a trick
because you cannot understand the language of nondoing. You can only understand the language of effort.
So he creates a language for you. Even if you cannot understand his language, he can understand your
language very well. Even if you cannot understand him, he can understand you very well.

So he gives whatsoever you can understand and by and by your understanding grows. And one day

when you really come to the point when you can understand a master, you will start laughing -- because he
has not done anything! But you will feel grateful in that moment, because without doing anything he has
totally transformed you.

Really, if something is done it is a violence. If in transforming you, changing you, I do something, it is

going to be aggressive, it is going to be violence. Every effort is violent. But if just by my presence, just by
your being around me, something starts happening in you and I am not doing anything, only then is it love,
it is not violence.

And a very peculiar phenomenon happens: if someone tries to change you, you will resist him -- because

instinctively you become aware of the violence, instinctively you will start defending yourself. If someone
tries to change you and make you good, religious, moral, and all that nonsense, you will resist. Your ego
will be hurt, and you will start defying him. You will start doing things which you never meant to do, just to
defy him.

Good fathers are the cause of bad generations. So-called saints and sages are the cause of the

degeneration, of the immorality, that exists all over the world -- because they go on forcing. And whenever

someone forces you, even if he is forcing you toward heaven, you will refuse. And it is good to refuse,
because he is killing you, your spirit. If you are forced into heaven you will be a dead man there. It is better
to go to hell but by one's own choice. You will at least be free. You will at least be a soul.

A real master never forces anything upon you, not in the least, not even indirectly -- no! Because if a

master cannot know the working of the mind, then who will know? If he cannot understand this working of
the human mind and consciousness -- that it becomes rebellious and resistant if you force something upon it
-- then who will know? A master knows; that is why he never does anything. He simply allows you to be
near him. He may create tricks so that you can be near him. For example, I say to you, "Meditate!" You are
meditating but the basic thing is that you are just near me. And while you are meditating, without my doing
anything, something is happening to you.

I am talking to you: that is a trick. There is no need to talk. If you can understand, you can simply sit

here near me. There is no need to say anything. But then you will get bored. You will say, "What am I doing
here -- sitting and sitting?" Your mind needs some toys to play with, so I give you toys with which to play
and your mind goes on playing with the toys. And all the time, all the while something is happening which
is the basic thing. You are not aware of that, but one day you will become aware.

Then you will see what the trick was, what the technique was. The technique is to engage your mind

somewhere else so that you are available to me and to my presence. Then I can meet you without any
interference from your mind.

The second question:

BELOVED OSHO,
THIS MORNING YOU TALKED ABOUT THE INNER INTERCOURSE AND ORGASM WHICH HAPPENS
BETWEEN THE OUTER MALE BODY AND THE INNER FEMALE UNCONSCIOUS, AND VICE VERSA.
PLEASE EXPLAIN HOW THIS HAPPENS IN THE ACTIVE MEDITATION WE ARE PRACTICING HERE.

It happens in the active meditation you are doing here because all that is hidden and suppressed is

brought out by it. It is a catharsis, an expression. It is just the reverse process of suppression. So you will
have to understand the process of suppression.

Someone has died: you feel very sad, but you think in your mind that it is not manly to weep or to cry. It

will look like a weakness, and you have always maintained a strong image of yourself. Everyone knows that
you are a very strong-willed man, so how can you weep? This is womanish, so you suppress the tears. They
want to come out, they want to be released and relieved, but you suppress them. Those tears will become
poison, because the system was trying to throw them out and you have suppressed them. You go on smiling.
Your heart is weeping and crying, but you go on smiling.

You are trying to maintain an image. You cannot be natural; you cannot allow your heart, your body,

your mind, to function naturally. You go on manipulating them. You choose: something has to be expressed
and something has to be repressed. That repressed part becomes the unconscious.

Really, there exists no unconscious. You repress something and you repress it very deeply because you

yourself do not want to be aware of it, you do not want to be conscious of it. It will be a heavy burden on
the mind, so you go on forgetting it. You go on being unconscious about the fact that it exists there. You
forget its existence, and you yourself create an unconsciousness within.

This is the way you become divided, you become two. The rejected part becomes the unconscious and

the accepted part becomes the conscious. If you are a man, then you are rejecting the woman, because no
culture has yet existed on earth which accepts the bisexuality. All the cultures that have existed up to now
were not really aware of the fact that to be a man or to be a woman is not something absolute. It is relative,
it is a question of degrees.

If you are a man, it doesn't mean that you are a hundred percent man. No one can be, because to be a

hundred percent man you will have to be born out of your father with the mother not contributing anything.
That is impossible! Or to be a hundred percent woman, the father would have not to be there at all; only the
mother would be involved. If the father contributes something, the male element has entered; if the mother
contributes something, then the female element has entered. This is a new fact brought out by depth
psychology -- a new fact for the West, but tantra in the East has always been aware of it.

Man is only in relative terms a man: he may be sixty percent man and forty percent woman; or a woman

may be sixty percent woman and forty percent man. That is why many things happen. Sometimes the

degrees are so near that someone may be fifty-one percent man and forty-nine percent woman, so you
cannot decide really whether he is a man or a woman. He will walk, he will talk, he will move, in a feminine
way, forty-nine percent. And this difference is of hormones. New hormones can be injected. This is a
borderline case -- forty-nine percent woman and fifty-one percent man. You can inject a few more female
hormones, and the balance will change and the man will become a woman.

There have been many accidents when suddenly a boy becomes a girl or a girl becomes a boy. Then

scientists became aware about this phenomenon. Then they came to understand that there are borderline
cases. Now there are hormones available, and I think that the time is not very far off, it will happen even
before this century ends, that the alternatives will be available to everyone: you will be able to change your
sex.

And it is a good idea -- because if a man has remained for thirty years a man, it will be a good change.

Really, to become a woman is to move into another world, and this is a greater change than going to the
moon. There is nothing much there; it is just like the earth. But a man moving to be a woman or a woman
becoming a man is moving to a completely opposite pole.

Really, whenever the alternative becomes possible, only foolish people will not use it. Those who are

wise will use it, because then you can become aware and you can live in two totally different worlds. That
will give a new light to the human mind, because man has never really understood what woman is, neither
are women capable of understanding men, because their psychologies differ so absolutely, they exist on
such extreme poles.

Freud has said, "I have been working for forty years with human psychology, but still I cannot say what

a woman desires, what a woman wants, what her mind is." It is difficult, because a man cannot understand a
woman. Whatsoever he understands will be a point of view, as he is standing at the other pole. He will be
looking at a woman as a man, and that changes everything. A woman cannot understand man because she is
always looking from the standpoint of being a woman. And we cannot change places. If biology helps us,
then the old controversy between man and woman will disappear.

I am saying that you are a man only relatively or a woman only relatively. And if you are a man, then

the other part which is a woman, which your mother contributes, you will have to suppress. Why? What is
the need to suppress it? We suppress it because we have been trying to live according to logic. That is the
greatest fallacy man has committed. We have been trying to live according to logic, and life is illogical.

Life is both man and woman together, and logic is always either feminine or masculine. Your logic says

you are a man, so cut all those qualities which do not belong to a man. And that suppressed part becomes
your unconscious. You are a woman, so everyone says you must be kind, loving, sympathetic. You must not
be cruel, you must not hate, you must not be aggressive, because that is not how a woman is conceived to
be.

This is nonsense! Really, if a woman becomes aggressive, she is incomparable. No man can compete

with her, because your aggression is exhausted already -- you have used it too much. But she has not used
her man, so that man is still fresh and young. If she becomes aggressive, there is no man who can compete
with her. If she is angry and violent, you will look just pale before her.

And similar is the case with man. They say that a man must be aggressive, violent, powerful. He must

have willpower, must not be weak, must not show sympathy or love: these things are womanish. But if a
man can love, no woman can compete with him -- no woman, because his 'woman' remains always virgin
and fresh, unexhausted, unused. What I am saying is this: that your other is illogical, so you deny it in order
to have a clear-cut image, a logical image.

I have heard that once it happened that a very great Zen mystic and master died. His disciple Rinzai was

very well known, more known than his master. Really, this master was known because of Rinzai. Rinzai
was a great man, famous all over Japan. When the master died, thousands and thousands of people gathered
to pay their respects. They were surprised because Rinzai was weeping and crying, and tears were rolling
down his cheeks.

Many friends said, "What are you doing? These people who have gathered are talking about you, and

they say, 'We cannot conceive of Rinzai weeping. We thought that he is a man who is totally unattached; we
thought that he is a man who has renounced all attachments, and now he is weeping. This man Rinzai has
been teaching us that the soul is immortal -- that only the body dies, and the body is nothing: dust returns
unto dust. So why is he weeping now?' "

They demanded an answer. They were logical, because if a man says that the soul is immortal, then

death should have no meaning. "Then why are you weeping?" they said. "You say that no attachment is the
key, so why are you attached to your master? Only the body has died, and you have been always teaching
that the body is just dead matter. So why be worried about it? A dead thing has become dead."

They demanded an answer, and they were logical. But what did Rinzai say? Rinzai said, "Your question

is logical, but what can I do? The tears are coming down. I am weeping. I find myself weeping. Not only are
you surprised: I am surprised. What can I do? This is how life is happening in me, and life is illogical."

Rinzai said, "It is good that my master has died, as he has made me aware of my total life. Without him I

was thinking that I was unattached. If he had not died, I could never have stumbled upon the fact that I have
a heart and that I have tears and that I can weep.
"So, people, you are not the only ones who are surprised. Rinzai himself is surprised. But I will not suppress
life. I have been accepting life totally, and I still say the soul is immortal and only the body has died. Only
the body is dead, but the body was also so beautiful! I am weeping for the body. Dust unto dust: really, I
still say that dust has gone back to dust, but that dust had taken such a beautiful form that I am weeping for
it."

It is recorded in Zen chronicles that Rinzai proved to be real to life, not to logic.

Be real to life, not to logic, and then whatsoever you have suppressed will come up, will explode. This is

what the active meditation is doing: bringing the suppressed up to be expressed; bringing your tears back to
life, bringing your anger, your laughter, your sadness, back to life; throwing everything out of your system
so that your system becomes purified, so that your system becomes innocent again. With that innocent
system you can contact the divine. This poisoned system cannot have any contact.

Active meditation is catharsis. It is to purify you. And when you are purified and the unconscious has

been acted out, the barrier between the unconscious and the conscious falls -- because the barrier is created
by suppression. When you are not suppressing the barrier disappears and then there is no boundary between
the conscious and the unconscious.

Then you are both: you are bisexual -- man and woman both. And when you are both, you will have a

new feeling of being, a new unity within you. You will not feel disrupted, divided. You will become
organic, one. This oneness can lead you to the ultimate oneness; this oneness is the first step.

The third question and the last:

BELOVED OSHO,
YOU SAID BE A TOTAL YEA-SAYER, BE TOTALLY WITH THE BODY. BUT IT IS OUR COMMON
EXPERIENCE THAT THEN THERE IS EVERY POSSIBILITY OF THE SENSES BEING PERMISSIVE AND
INDULGENT. PLEASE EXPLAIN THE WISDOM BEHIND THE ABOVE SAYING.

So let them be permissive and indulgent. Why be afraid? What is wrong in it? The fear comes from a

long tradition of suppression. Why be afraid of your senses being permissive? Why not permit them? Who
are you not to permit them and what has happened to you? Do you think that you have enslaved your
senses? Quite the contrary is the case: your senses have enslaved you, and you cannot be free unless your
senses are free. Unless your total being is free, you cannot be free. This is one of the deepest problems for
the human mind. You will have to understand it.

First you say something is wrong, then you become afraid of it. Then you try to suppress it, not to do it.

And the more you suppress it, the more your mind is filled with it.

For example, if you suppress sex then your mind will become sexual. Really, no animal is sexual except

human beings. Sex exists for animals, but they are not sexual. For animals sex exists, but they are not sexual
because they never think about it. They do not go on brooding about it, they do not create nude films, they
do not publish nude magazines. They do not do anything about sex. Whenever the desire arises they move;
whenever the desire is not you cannot move them. They simply follow their nature.

But man, he creates a sexual mind by suppressing sex. And the more he suppresses, the more he

becomes sexual, because whatsoever you suppress goes into your blood, into your bones. It becomes part of
your being. When I say be a yea-sayer, you become afraid. Why? It is not because what I am saying is
dangerous, but because the moment you think of yea-saying you become aware of all the poisons you have
suppressed; if I say yes, all this poison will be released."

You think that if you say yes to sex you will become mad after it -- that you will commit adultery, that

you will become a maniac. The situation is just like this: if a man fasts for thirty days, then even a hint about
food makes him mad. Not that a hint about food can make anybody mad -- the food is not the cause. The
cause is his own suppression. He has been suppressing his hunger, his desire to eat. Any hint, however
indirect, and he will become mad. He will say, "Do not say such things."

A word can break his whole suppression and explode his whole being. He will become afraid; he will

not look at food. He will pass through the streets and he will not look at the signboards of the restaurants, he
will just look down. But whatsoever he is doing... even looking down at the road he will see food.

Really, everything will finally become an indirect invitation to food. If he looks at the moon he will

think about bread -- white bread floating in the sky. He cannot see his beloved's face there -- impossible. He
will see bread.

Whatsoever you are starved of you will project. Really, if your beloved is not with you, only then can

you see her face in the moon. If your beloved is with you, how can you see? You will see simply the moon.
And when you see the moon simply as the moon, you are healthy. When you see your beloved's face you
are unhealthy. Or when you see bread floating you are unhealthy, you are perverted.

A moon is a moon. Nothing else should be seen in it. Anything else that you see is a projection.

Something suppressed goes out and creates an illusion; it is a hallucination. Whatsoever you suppress
becomes hallucinatory. Then you are living in it, moving in it, and, of course, you become more and more
afraid and scared. So the more you get scared, the more you suppress it.

You are in a suicidal effort; that is why such questions arise: "If I say yes, the first thing that comes to

the mind is whatever I have said no to." That thing will assert itself immediately. If you have been starving
your body, fasting, dieting, and I say, "Say yes," the first thing that comes to your mind will be to go and
eat. And then you will become afraid, because you have been dieting and now the whole thing will go to the
dogs if you say yes.

If a man who has been suppressing sex thinks about saying yes to the whole of life, he will be afraid of

sex. Whatsoever you have suppressed, whatsoever you have said no to, will demand. It will be the first thing
that will come to your mind to say yes to, and this will create trembling. But this trembling is coming not
because of yea-saying -- it is coming because you have said no. This is the point to be understood: it is
coming because you have said no. The questions come: "What if the society becomes permissive? What if
everyone indulges?" It is because the society has been repressive. It is because everyone has said no to life
energies.

Try saying yes. In the beginning it may happen that you will become permissive. In the beginning it may

happen that you will become indulgent, because whenever a suppressed force is released it moves to the
other pole forcibly. But wait and be a witness. Sooner or later the suppressed force will be lost, and for the
first time in your life you will become healthy. And then the pendulum will come and stand in the middle.

When the pendulum comes in the middle you are healthy, but you have been keeping it to the left,

pulling it to the left. Now you are afraid that if you leave it, it will go to the very right. Of course it will go,
but it is going to the right not because you are leaving it; it is going to the right because you have been
clinging to it and pulling it to the left. Leave it, and the sooner the better. It WILL go to the right. Allow it
to go, and do not pull it to the left. Allow it to go! By and by, it will move from right to left, from left to
right. The momentum that you have given it by suppressing has to be released, so it will have to move. But
do not give it a new momentum; just become a witness.

By and by, the pendulum will become static in the middle. When the pendulum is in the middle of your

mind and you are not afraid of indulgence or permissiveness, you have become free. Now you are healthy
and natural.

My whole emphasis is to be natural. The more natural, the nearer you are to the divine. Nature is not

against the divine; nature is the expression of the divine. But you have been taught again and again that
nature is against the divine, so "Kill nature so that you can reach God."

You will never reach in this way because nature is not against the divine. If it is against, it cannot exist.

How can it exist? How can anything exist which is against the divine? It is part of the total, part of the
game. Do not be against it. And how can you be? You are part of nature. You can go on deceiving yourself,
that is all.

Allow it to flow in a natural way, allow it a natural rhythm, and by and by it settles. And when it has

settled you will find that suddenly you are standing in the divine. When there is no fight with nature, just an
acceptance, you have moved beyond nature. But this 'beyond nature' is not against nature. It is really a
growth THROUGH it. You will come to brahmacharya -- to a beautiful celibacy -- but not through fighting

sex. No one has come that way ever, no one can ever come that way.

When you are growing through sex, becoming more and more alert through sex, sex will be

transformed. This is the way: if you suppress sex it becomes sexuality; if you express sex it becomes love.
And through sexuality you cannot reach the divine. It is a perversion. But through love you can reach -- it is
a natural growth.

The more you accept natural instincts totally, without any condemnation at all, by and by they subside

and the fever is lost. And when they subside you have tremendous energy left with you. That energy can
become the arrow toward the divine. It becomes! There is a celibacy which comes through growth and there
is a celibacy which comes simply through negation, denial. The celibacy that comes through denial is
perverted: your mind will be filled with sexuality. The celibacy that happens gracefully, through alertness,
through acceptance, becomes a grace. It has a beauty of its own, and by and by it goes beyond itself.

Then it is love. Then it is prayer. And the love that was flowing toward the opposite sex starts flowing

toward the divine -- the same love, the same energy.

So keep it in your mind: I am not against anything. I am for transcendence, but not against anything.

God is not against the world: it is a transcendence. It has to be achieved through the world; that is why you
have been thrown into the world. But you feel, and you go on thinking, that you are more wise than God
himself. He has thrown you into the world to grow, to experience, to be anguished through it. And you are
so wise....

Be a little foolish; do not be so wise. Allow the divine to have its own way through you; experience life

with a yea-saying heart. And when you say yes, the very life becomes divine.

Now get ready for the meditation. A few things before you get into it: for fifteen minutes you have to

stand and stare at me with your hands raised above as if a divine force is to come to you, and you are
receptive and welcoming. While standing, you have to stare at me without blinking the eyes. Even if tears
start flowing, do not bother -- allow them to flow. And you have to go on jumping so that your energy is
dynamic, not static.

I will give you indirect suggestions by my hands. I will raise my hands slowly upwards, and when I

raise my hands upwards you have to bring your total energy up to jump, to dance. Be totally active when I
raise my hands upwards. When I feel that now you have become a storm, that now the group soul has taken
place, that now the individuals are thrown, that they have melted down and here only a group soul exists,
whenever I feel this I will put my palms down this way. That means that now God can descend upon you. In
that moment go completely mad so that you are totally open and something can happen within you.

For fifteen minutes, this first step. Then for fifteen minutes there will be total silence. You have to close

your eyes. The light will be put off, and there will be total darkness and silence for fifteen minutes. And at
the end, for ten minutes, you can celebrate; you can dance and sing and be grateful.

The Supreme Doctrine

Chapter #4

Chapter title: The Unknowable Self

10 July 1973 am in Mt Abu Meditation Camp

Archive code: 7307100

ShortTitle: DOCTRN04

Audio:

Yes

Video:

No

Length: 84 mins

Invocation

THE EYES CANNOT APPROACH IT, NEITHER CAN SPEECH NOR MIND. WE DO NOT, THEREFORE,
KNOW IT, NOR DO WE KNOW HOW TO TEACH IT. IT IS DIFFERENT FROM WHAT IS KNOWN AND IT IS
DIFFERENT FROM WHAT IS UNKNOWN. THUS WE HAVE HEARD FROM OUR PREDECESSORS WHO
INSTRUCTED US ABOUT IT.
WHAT SPEECH CANNOT REVEAL BUT WHAT REVEALS SPEECH -- KNOW THOU THAT ALONE AS
BRAHMAN AND NOT THIS -- ANYTHING OBJECTIVE -- THAT PEOPLE WORSHIP HERE.
WHAT MIND DOES NOT COMPREHEND BUT WHAT COMPREHENDS THE MIND -- KNOW THOU THAT
ALONE AS BRAHMAN AND NOT THIS THAT PEOPLE WORSHIP HERE.

The deepest mystery of existence is the phenomenon of knowledge. You can know everything except

your own self. The knower cannot be known because to know something means to reduce it to an object.
The very process of knowledge depends on duality. I can know you because I am here, inside, and you are
there, outside. You become an object. But I cannot know my self because I cannot make my self an object. I
cannot encounter my self in any objective way. I cannot put my self in front of me. And if I could put my
self in front of me then that which is put in front of me would not be my self. How can that which can be put
in front of me be my self? Really, the inner one which will look at it will remain my self.

Self is subjective and this subjectivity cannot be made objective. Hence, the paradox: that which knows

all cannot know itself; that which is the source of all knowledge remains unknowable. If you can understand
this, then this sutra will reveal much. This is one of the most profound sutras. It goes deeper than all that the
mystics have said. It says self-knowledge is impossible. You have heard, it has been preached, it has been
told everywhere, "Know thyself." But how can you know your self? You can know everything other than
you. One point will always remain unknown, unknowable. That point is you.

The word self-knowledge is not good at all. Knowledge of the self is not possible. But this may create a

deep pessimism in you. If knowledge of the self is not possible, then the whole of religion becomes absurd
because this is what religion is meant to do -- to give you self-knowledge. Then there must be some other
meaning to the word self-knowledge. Then there must be something, a hidden dimension, through which
you can know the self and still not make it an object. Knowledge must be possible in an altogether different
sense.

In the world, whatsoever we know is objective and the subject remains unknowable, the knower remains

unknowable. But can this knower be known? This is the basic question, the basic problem. If there is only
one way of knowing -- that is objective knowledge -- then it cannot be known. Hence, all the scientific
thinkers will deny that the self exists. Their denial is meaningful. All those who are trained to think in terms
of object, of objectivity, they will say there is no self.

Their saying this means that they cannot conceive of another type of knowing. They think that there is

only one type of knowing and that is objective. The self cannot be made objective; hence, it cannot be
known. And that which cannot be known cannot be said to exist. How can you say that it exists? The
moment you say that it exists you have said that you have known it. You cannot assert its existence. If it is
not known, not only not known but also unknowable, then how can you say that it exists?

Scientists go on saying that there is no self, that man is a mechanism and the consciousness that appears

is just an epiphenomenon, a by-product. They say that there is no self, there is no center -- that the
consciousness comes into existence just through chemical phenomena and when the body withers away,
consciousness disappears.

So for science, death is total death; nothing remains after it. Consciousness is not substantial; it is a

by-product. It cannot exist without the body. It is part of the body, just a combination of many material
things. It comes into being; it is not elementary. It is a compound, a combination, a synthesis, something
which depends on other things. There is no self. Science says there is no self because the self cannot be
known.

The very word science means knowledge. And if something is unknowable, science will not approve of

it, science will not agree to it. Science means that which can be known. Only then is science not mystical. It
cannot fall into absurdities. For science, the very word self-knowledge is absurd. But still, religion is
meaningful because there is another dimension of knowing.

Try to understand that dimension of knowing where the known is not reduced to an object. For instance,

if a lamp is burning in a dark room, everything in the room is lighted, is known through the light of the

lamp. But the lamp is also known by its own light. Everything else -- chairs, furniture, the walls, paintings
on the walls -- they are known through the light. But through what is the light itself known?

The light is self-enlightening: just by its presence it reveals others and it reveals itself also. But these

two revelations are different. When the chair is known through the light, the chair is an object. The light
falls on it and if the light disappears the chair cannot be known. The knowledge of the chair depends on the
light but the knowledge of the light itself doesn't depend on the chair. If you remove everything the light
will still be light. There will be nothing to reveal but it will go on revealing itself. The revelation of the light
is self-revelation.

Similar is the case with the inner phenomenon, the inner self. Everything is known through it but it itself

is known not by anything else -- it is a self-revealing phenomenon. It reveals itself. Self-knowledge doesn't
mean that the self is known by someone else because then the someone else will be the self. So whatsoever
is known in an objective way cannot be the self. Always the knower will be the self. But how can this self
be known? The self is a self-evident, self-revealing phenomenon; nothing else is needed to know it. You
need not reduce it to an object.

Really, when all objects are removed from the mind, when all the furniture is removed from the mind,

suddenly the self reveals itself. It is self-revealing. Really, that is the difference between matter and
consciousness: matter is not self-revealing and consciousness is self-revealing; matter has to be known by
someone else and consciousness knows itself. That is the basic difference between matter and
consciousness. There are trees but if there is no conscious being they cannot be revealed; they need
someone's consciousness so that they can be revealed.

There are rocks, beautiful rocks, but if there is no consciousness they will not be beautiful because then

no one will become aware that they are there. Their existence will be mute. Even those rocks will not be
able to know that they exist. Existence will be there but there will be no revelation of it.

A small child comes playing near the rock: suddenly the rock is revealed. Now it is not a mute

existence. Through the child the rock has become assertive. Now the tree is revealed. Now everything
around the child becomes alive in a new meaning. The child has become a source of revelation. Everything
around him becomes alive. Hence, the deeper your consciousness, the deeper you reveal existence.

When a buddha is born the whole existence celebrates in him because of such a deep consciousness. All

that is hidden in matter becomes manifest. It was never known before. Just by the presence of an
enlightened person, the whole existence around him is enlightened. Everything becomes alive, feels through
him. Consciousness reveals others, but there is no need to reveal it for another consciousness. It is
self-revelatory.

Take it from another angle: everything needs proof because everything can be doubted. But you cannot

doubt the self; therefore the self never needs any proof. Can you doubt the self? One of the great Western
thinkers, Descartes, used doubt as a method to know. He started his journey of knowledge through doubt --
very penetrating doubt. He decided that he would doubt everything unless he stumbled upon a fact which
could not be doubted. And unless there is a basic fact which cannot be doubted, you cannot build the palace
of knowledge because there is no foundation stone to make it. If everything can be doubted and has to be
proved, then the whole edifice is just logical. Something deep down must be indubitable, which does not
need any proof.

God is not indubitable. Remember this: God is not indubitable. He can be doubted -- not only doubted,

he can be disproved. And really, when someone doubts God you cannot prove his existence. You can only
convince those who are already convinced, but you cannot convert a new man; that is impossible. Not a
single atheist can be converted because he needs proof and you cannot prove God.

God is not indubitable. He can be doubted, rejected. The whole hypothesis can be said to be false. There

is no proof that can help. So Descartes goes on discussing, inquiring, and he says that unless he comes to a
point, to something in existence that is indubitable.... Not that it can be proved -- no. Rather, it cannot be
doubted. And ultimately he comes to the self and says that the self is a greater reality than God. It is,
because the self cannot be doubted. Can you doubt it? Even to doubt it you will have to have it.

For example, if you are in the house and someone comes and asks whether you are in the house or not

and you say, "I am not," the very fact that you say "I am not" will prove that you are there. You cannot deny
yourself. The very fact that you say, "I am not" shows that you are there. The denial becomes the proof.
There is no need not to affirm it; even denial becomes the proof. When even denial is a proof, the fact is
indubitable. How can you doubt it?

You cannot say, "I do not know whether I am or not" -- or can you? Even to be in such confusion, you

need to be there. How can there be confusion without you? You cannot say, "I don't believe that I am,"
because even not to believe, someone is needed to be there. There is no way to deny that you exist, that the I
exists.

This self is the only indubitable fact in the world; everything else has been doubted. There have been

skeptics who have doubted everything, even ordinary things of which you cannot conceive how they can be
doubted. You are here but the English philosopher Berkeley says, "I cannot believe that you are here. You
may be just a dream. And there is no way to prove that you are not a dream, because when I dream, I dream
of people such as you." And this is one of the essential qualities of a dream: in a dream the dream appears
real.

So if you are appearing real, Berkeley says that does not prove anything, because in every dream the

dream appears real. Can you doubt while you are dreaming? You cannot: the dream appears real. Even a
very absurd dream appears real. It is just illogical, irrelevant, but still it appears real while it is there. So
Berkeley says that there is no way to prove whether you are real or not. You can be doubted, everything can
be doubted.

One of the greatest Indian mystics, Nagarjuna, has doubted everything -- EVERYTHING! He says

nothing is real because everything can be doubted. But there is only one point which he goes on avoiding:
he never talks about the self because then his whole edifice, his whole philosophy, would fall down --
because that cannot be doubted. It can be asked of Nagarjuna, "Okay! The whole world is illusory and
everything can be doubted, but who is this doubter? Do you doubt it -- this doubter who denies the whole
world?" The self is indubitable because it is self-evident. No proof is needed, no argument is needed. It is
self-evident.

Mahavira denied God: he said there is no God. But he couldn't say there is no self. Then the very self

became divine for him. He said, "Only the self is God." And that is true: in you, the self is the nearest thing
to divine existence. That is why it cannot be doubted. It is self-evident, self-revealing, self-enlightening.

This is the second way of knowing. The scientific way is to know a thing as an object. The religious way

is to know the subject as the subject. In a scientific way, knowledge has three parts: the knower, the known
and the knowledge. The knowledge is just a bridge between the knower and the known. But the religious
knowing does not have three parts. The knower is the known and the knower is the knowledge. This
knowing is not divided into three. It is one, it is undivided.
Now we will enter the sutra:

THE EYES CANNOT APPROACH IT, NEITHER CAN SPEECH NOR MIND. WE DO NOT, THEREFORE,
KNOW IT, NOR DO WE KNOW HOW TO TEACH IT. IT IS DIFFERENT FROM WHAT IS KNOWN AND IT IS
DIFFERENT FROM WHAT IS UNKNOWN. THUS WE HAVE HEARD FROM OUR PREDECESSORS WHO
INSTRUCTED US ABOUT IT.
THE EYES CANNOT APPROACH IT, NEITHER CAN SPEECH NOR MIND. The eyes can approach
everything else because everything else is in front of the eyes and the self is not in the front. The self is behind
the eyes, only the self is behind the eyes. Everything else is in front. You can encounter everything through the
eyes but you cannot encounter the self because it is not in front; that is one thing. So eyes cannot be used to
see it. Really, you will have to become blind to see it. Not actually, but the eyes must become so vacant,
nonseeing, so closed, not functioning, only then will you know it. Eyes cannot approach it. You will have to
come to it without eyes. You will have to come to it just like a blind man.

So really, a blind man and a man with eyes are not different as far as the self is concerned. As far as the

world is concerned the blind man is at a great loss; he cannot know anything. But as far as the self is
concerned he is not at any loss -- not at all. And if he is a wise man, his blindness may be a help to him.

That is why we in India have called blind men PRAGYA CHAKSHU -- wise eyes. It is not that every

blind man is wise but potentially he is nearer to the self than those who have eyes, because those who have
eyes have wandered far away through the eyes into the world. They have gone very VERY far away. You
can move on through the eyes to the very end of the world. And science goes on creating more powerful
eyes for you so that you can see minute parts, atomic phenomena, and so that you can see to distant stars.

Science goes on removing you from the self. So the more an age becomes scientific, the less it comes to

religious knowledge. Now you have more powerful instruments with which to go away, and you HAVE
gone -- far away from your self.

Senses have become powerful. Really, science is doing nothing but creating more powerful senses for

man: your hand can now reach to the moon; your eyes can now reach to distant stars. Every sense has been
magnified, and this goes on.

A blind man is closed in himself; he cannot go out. But he can go in, if he is not disturbed by the fact

that he is blind and if he is helped by the society to know that this is not a misfortune but a blessing in
disguise.

That is what we mean when we call blind men pragya chakshu. We say, "Don't be worried about the

ordinary eyes. You can gain those inner eyes through which you can know yourself, so do not be worried
about them. Forget them completely. You are not losing anything because no one gains anything through
the eyes. You can move within easily because the other door is closed."

Eyes are your doors for going out. Through eyes you are moving, through eyes the desire, through eyes

the illusion, through eyes the projection -- through eyes moves the whole world. But the innermost cannot
be approached through the eyes. You will have to become blind. Not that you have to throw away your eyes
but that your eyes must become vacant, objectless, without dreams. Your eyes must become empty -- empty
of things, empty of pictures, empty of reflections.

If you can look into the eyes of an enlightened one, you will see they are totally different. A buddha

looks at you and still he is not looking at you. You do not become a part of his eyes. His look is vacant.
Sometimes you may get scared because you will feel that he is indifferent to you. He is looking at you so
vacantly, not paying any attention to you.

Really, he cannot pay any attention to you. The attention is lost now; he has only awareness. He cannot

be attentive to anything exclusively because that exclusiveness is created by desire. He looks at you as if not
looking. You never become a part of his eyes. If you can become a part of his eyes, then you will become a
part of his mind -- because eyes are just the door for the mind; they go on collecting the outer world into the
inner. Eyes must become blind. Only then can you see your self.

This sutra says that the eyes cannot approach it; it is unapproachable by the eyes. But we go on asking

how to see God and we go on saying that unless we see God we cannot believe. You cannot see; seeing is of
no help. You can see only the world. God cannot be seen. And if someone says that he has seen God, he is
in illusion. He has seen a vision, a dream -- a beautiful dream, a holy dream, but still a dream. So if you say
that you have seen Krishna and you have seen Rama and you have seen Jesus, you are dreaming -- good
dreams, beautiful dreams, but still dreams. You cannot see him. Eyes are of no help there. Through the eyes
he cannot be approached. You must become blind to see him.

When you lose your eyes -- really, when there is no desire to see -- your eyes become vacant. Suddenly

it is revealed within. It doesn't need any eyes to see it; it is self-revelatory. Generally things are not
self-revelatory; hence, eyes are needed. It is self-revelatory! Really, in a deeper sense, when you see
through the eyes he is seeing through the eyes, not the eyes themselves. That is another dimension to be
known.

When I look at you are my eyes looking at you? Eyes are just windows. I am looking at you THROUGH

the eyes. Eyes are just windows; I am standing behind them. If I stand in the window and look out to the
hills, will you say that the window is looking at the hills? The window will not be mentioned at all. I am
looking through the window. Eyes are just apertures, windows. The consciousness looks through them and
there is no need for this consciousness to look at itself through the eyes. The eyes are for others. The eyes
are devices to look at the other. For your self no eyes are needed.

For example, if I want to look at the hills I will look out of the windows, but if I want to look at my self

there is no need for the window. I can close the window. There is no need for it because I am not outside the
window, I am inside it. For everything else eyes are helpful. Everything can be approached through them;
only the self cannot be approached through them.

THE EYES CANNOT APPROACH IT: remember this! Then the false question of, "How can I see

God?" will drop. You will not create that question or create around that question a false search. You will not
ask where you can see him, where he can be found. He is nowhere, and really, eyes are irrelevant for him.
He is hidden behind, within. Close your eyes and he will be revealed.

But just by closing the physical eyes he may not be revealed because just by closing the physical eyes

you are not closing anything. The world you have gathered in goes on and you go on looking at it. I can
close my eyes and still I can see you there. Then the eyes are not vacant. Then the eyes are still filled. When
all the pictures disappear, all the impressions disappear, the eyes are vacant. And when the eyes are vacant
you can approach it, you can approach the inner.

... NEITHER CAN SPEECH NOR MIND. Verbalization will not help, intellectual thinking will not

help. Whatsoever you can think will not be it because thinking is also outgoing, thinking is also for objects.
Science insists on thinking; religion insists on no-thinking. Science insists: "Make thinking more rational,

then the nature of things will be revealed more accurately." And religion says: "Do not think, then the nature
of the self will be revealed to you." They are diametrically opposite.

Religion says, "Stop thinking, drop thinking, drop thoughts. They are the barrier." And science says,

"Make thinking more logical, accurate, keener, analytical, rational. Do not bring any type of faith into it; do
not bring any type of emotion into it; do not get involved in it. Let it be impartial -- logical to the very
extreme. Only then will the nature of things be revealed." And both are right. As far as the world is
concerned science is true and as far as the inner subject is concerned religion is true.

But you can fall into a fallacy, and that fallacy is worldwide, universal. A scientist, when he comes to

feel that the keener the thinking, the more he reaches to the innermost core of a thing, starts thinking that the
same method should be used for the inner search also. The fallacy has started. That method cannot be of any
help for the inner search. And really, if the scientist insists on using the same method as he uses in science,
the same experimental, objective methodology, then he will come to conclude that there is no self. Not that
there is no self but that the method of the scientist is to reveal things; it cannot reveal the self. He will just
bypass it. Because of that method he will miss it.

That which is helpful in the world is a hindrance for the inner. The same fallacy has been committed on

the opposite pole also. When a religious person reaches the inner self through nonthinking, he starts
believing that through nonthinking the nature of the world can also be revealed.

The East has committed that fallacy very deeply; that is why the East couldn't create any science. You

cannot create science through nonthinking. The East has been absolutely nonscientific. There were great
minds born here but they couldn't create any science. They discussed and discussed, philosophically they
were superb, but nothing happened in the outside world. Nothing can happen.

The West has now created a great edifice of science, persons like Einstein. But the inner search remains

nil. Even when Albert Einstein was dying, he felt frustrated. He had penetrated into the mystery of things in
the universe, and he had come to reveal one of its deepest cores -- the theory of relativity. But he came to
realize that although he had known many things never known before, as far as his own self was concerned it
still remained a mystery. Nothing has been known about it. The methods are opposite because the directions
are opposite.

To know a thing you have to move out, to know your self you have to move in. To move out you have to

move in thought: thought is an outgoing process. To move in you have to stop thoughts, cease thinking.
Nonthinking is an in-moving process.

This sutra says: ... NEITHER CAN SPEECH NOR MIND. The mind will not be of much help. Only

meditation can be of help. Meditation is to create a 'no-mind' within you. Remember this: meditation is to
create a no-mind within you; hence, my emphasis on going completely mad so that the mind is dropped.
The mind always resists madness. The mind says, "What are you doing? Are you crazy?" The mind always
wants clear-cut logical things. The mind always asks, "Why are you doing it?" And if you cannot answer
why, the mind will say, "Stop!"

But life answers no whys. If you fall in love, the mind says, "Why have you fallen in love?" And then

you create some idea around it: because the face of the girl is so beautiful.... This is not the case. Really, the
face of the girl looks beautiful because you have fallen in love, not the vice versa. It is not that the face is
beautiful and that is why you have fallen in love; otherwise everyone will fall in love with your girl -- but
no one is falling. It is not that the face is beautiful but that your love gives it beauty. Your love creates a
beauty around it.

That is why you go on laughing about others' lovers. You think that man is crazy, going mad, falling for

that type of girl. You feel repulsed and he feels attracted. You think he is crazy. No, he is not crazy because
love is not a logical phenomenon. You FALL in love. We call it a falling because you fall from the head. It
is not a rising in love, it is a falling because the head sees it as a fall. You have lost your reason, you are
going mad.

Love is a sort of madness. Really, life itself is a sort of madness. If you go on asking why, you cannot

live for a single moment. If you go on asking, "Why breathe? Why get out of bed today? Why?" there is no
answer; "Why go to sleep?" -- there is no answer; "Why go on eating every day? Why go on loving the
same person every day?" -- there is no answer. Life is answerless. You can raise the questions but there is
no one to answer them.

Life is a sort of madness. Reason is death, it is not life. The more you become rational, the more dead

you will be because again and again you will ask why... and there is no answer. Then you will not do
anything and then you will go on ceasing, shrinking. Life is a mad expansion and in meditation we are

moving deeper and deeper into life -- to the very depth, to the very central core.

The mind has to be left behind. That is why I say do not ask why -- just move. And whatsoever comes to

you spontaneously, allow it to happen. If you allow it, in the beginning the mind will say, "Do not do it.
What will others think? What will they say? A man like you, so rational, dancing like a child? crying and
weeping and screaming like a madman? Do not do this!" The mind will go on checking you and you will
need courage not to listen to your mind because the mind cannot approach it. You have to put it aside.

The mind is a device to deal with the world. It is of no use for YOU. You exist before the mind, you

exist deeper than the mind; the mind has come to happen to you. It is just on the periphery. We have
different types of minds but our being is not different. The mind is a gathering, an earning. A child is born;
he is born without a mind. He is a simple being, then by and by the mind goes on being created around him.
He will need a mind to move in society, to work, to survive -- he will need a mind.

The mind is an instrument. That is why every society will create a different type of mind. If you are born

in an aboriginal village, hidden in the hills, not knowing any technology of the modern world, oblivious of
whatsoever is contemporary, your parents will give you a different type of mind because you have to move
in a different world. If you are born in the East you have a different type of mind, if you are born in the
West you have a different type of mind. Even if you are born in the same village and you are a Christian you
will have a different type of mind and if you are a Mohammedan you will have a different type of mind.

Mind is a creation, a cultivated thing. But the being without mind is the same everywhere. If you

penetrate deeply, then another thing will be revealed: if you are a human being you have one type of mind
and the tree standing just outside the window also has a mind -- a different type. As far as being is
concerned, you and the tree have similar beings. Only the mind differs.

Because the tree has to exist AMONG trees, she has to create a mind, an instrument, to exist among

them. You do not need that type of mind. That is why you feel that trees do not speak -- you do not know
their language. You think animals do not speak, they do not have any language. Really, the case is that
because you cannot understand them, you think they have no language. They have their own language. They
have their own mind which is suited to their milieu, suited to their atmosphere, suited to their society.

Mind is a device to survive in the outer world; it is not needed within. And if you carry it, you cannot

move within. With the mind you will move out, you cannot move within. Drop the mind, put it aside. Say,
"Now you are not needed. I am moving withinwards -- you are not needed."

WE DO NOT, THEREFORE, KNOW IT, NOR DO WE KNOW HOW TO TEACH IT.

That which can be known by the mind can be taught by the mind. But if it is impossible to know it by

the mind, how to teach it? -- because the teaching is going to be through the mind. So the Brahman, the
absolute, the self, cannot be taught; it is impossible to teach it. Then what am I doing? Or what is a Buddha
or a Christ or a Krishna doing? What are they doing if it cannot be taught? And what is the seer of the
Upanishad, Kena, doing if it cannot be taught? It cannot be taught, that is absolutely true, but still something
can be done.

A situation can be created in which it becomes infectious. It cannot be taught, but the 'infection' can be

given to you. In a particular situation you can become infected by it. So the whole phenomenon of master
and disciple is not a teaching phenomenon. The master is not really teaching anything. The master is just
trying to pull you into a situation, to push you into a situation where it can happen to you.

All the devices of yoga and tantra are just to create a situation in which the thing can happen. I can lead

you into a situation where you will become aware of a different sort of reality but that reality cannot be
taught. Can you teach a blind man what light is? You cannot! Whatsoever you do, you will not be able to
teach it. But one thing can be done: you can treat his eyes; the eyes can be operated upon. And if the blind
man comes to see, he will know what light is.

Light can be experienced but cannot be taught to a blind man. And we are just like blind men as far as

the inner reality is concerned. Your inner eyes can be opened toward it but you cannot be taught it.

That is why faith has been the corner-stone of all religious phenomena. The blind man must have faith;

otherwise he will not allow you to operate on his eyes. He will say, "You may destroy my eyes." He has
none, but he will become scared: What are you going to do? And if he thinks you are going to operate, that
you are going to do surgery, he will say, "Do not touch my eyes. You may destroy them. And how am I
supposed to know that when you have operated there will be light? And what is light? First tell me. First
prove what light is and whether light exists at all. Unless you prove this I cannot allow you to operate on my
eyes."

And there is no doctor who can prove that there is light. The doctor can only say, "Have faith in me."

Nothing else is possible, no argumentation is possible. The doctor can only say, "Trust in me. Even if you
are not going to gain anything, one thing is certain: you are not going to lose anything because you have no
eyes to lose."

That's what Buddha, Krishna, and Jesus have been saying: "Have faith. And you have nothing to lose, so

why get so worried? What can you lose believing in me? What do you have? If you have anything, then
escape from me as fast as possible. But you have nothing -- nothing to lose -- but you are so worried."
People come to me and they say, "How can I believe?" I tell them it is not a question of how because the
'how' needs answers. Faith means you have nothing to lose, so why not experiment? Why not try?

Karl Marx has said to the proletarians of the world, "You have nothing to lose except your chains." He

may not be right about the proletarians but I tell you that YOU have nothing to lose except your chains,
nothing to lose except your bondage, nothing to lose except your blindness. And the whole phenomenon is
possible only when you trust because you are moving into an unknown territory, uncharted.

I say I have known it but I cannot teach you. I can lead you to the point where you will become aware

that it exists but I cannot teach you. There is no language to teach it, no mind to teach it. There is no way to
teach it, no symbols to teach it. Whatsoever you know, it cannot be translated into that knowledge. It is
beyond it. I have known something and I can take you to that point where you will also become aware of it.
Then you will say, "It is!"

The mind cannot know it; therefore, we do not know it because whatsoever we know, we know through

the mind. Our whole knowledge consists of mind and mind and nothing else. So we cannot know it, nor do
we know how to teach it.

IT IS DIFFERENT FROM WHAT IS KNOWN AND IT IS DIFFERENT FROM WHAT IS UNKNOWN.

That creates a deeper problem again. IT IS DIFFERENT FROM THE KNOWN... obviously, because if

it were not different from the known, then you would have known it already.

Whatsoever you know, it is not IT. And the way you know, you cannot know IT; otherwise you would

have known it by now, because you have been in existence for millions and millions of lives. But you have
been missing it again and again. And buddhas go on talking about it and you go on listening to them about it
and nothing happens.

IT IS DIFFERENT FROM THE KNOWN AND IT IS DIFFERENT FROM WHAT IS UNKNOWN.
... Because the unknown can be known. 'Unknown' means just that which is not known yet. Use the same
methods of knowledge and someday it will be known.

Science divides the world into two: the known and the unknown -- there is nothing else. Science says

the 'known' and the 'unknown'. The known is that which we have come to know and the unknown is that
which will be known sooner or later. Religion brings a third category: the unknowable. Religion says there
is something which is known, something which is unknown, and something which is unknowable. If there is
something which is unknowable, only then is religion possible; otherwise science is enough. The unknown
will go on being reduced to the known.

It is conceivable that one day science will come to the point when there is only one category: the known.

By and by, the unknown will become known. At a point somewhere there will be nothing unknown. It can
be conceived of through science. But religion says there is something which is neither like the known nor
like the unknown: it is unknowable. Whatsoever you do you cannot know it. So when everything becomes
known, still the unknowable will be there -- the mystery, the mysterious, the MYSTERIUM, will remain.

Why insist that it is unknowable? Why not say that it is unknown? -- because the known is through the

mind and the unknown will become known through the mind and it is behind the mind. Whatsoever you do
by the mind, you will never approach it. You will have to drop the mind. And with the mind the known
drops and the unknown also because those two are the dimensions of the functioning of the mind. The
known and the unknown are the workings of the mind. When the mind drops, both have dropped and you
have entered the third dimension. This third dimension is of the unknowable. YOU are there in that
dimension; the self is there.
But the rishi says a very beautiful thing:

THUS WE HAVE HEARD FROM OUR PREDECESSORS WHO INSTRUCTED US ABOUT IT.

He says, "Thus have we heard from our own masters." He knows himself also; he can say, "I have

known this. This is what I have known." There is no difficulty in saying it. But he says, "This is what we
have heard. Our masters have said it."

This has a quality of its own -- the Indian heritage, the Indian attitude of saying things, the Indian way of

always being humble, not assertive. So Buddha says, "Whatsoever I am saying was known before me by
other buddhas. This is nothing new." This is the emphasis. The emphasis is that this is nothing new, nothing
original. And really, truth cannot be original; only untruth can be original. You can invent lies, but you
cannot invent truth -- or can you?

Truth cannot be invented. Truth is eternal, timeless. So it is absurd to say that I have discovered it. You

only rediscover it; you never discover it. It has been discovered again and again, millions of times. It has
been known again and again, millions of times. You always rediscover it; you never discover it.

To emphasize this fact the rishis say, "It has been said so by those who preceded us. It has always been

known." He doesn't claim any originality. That claim belongs to the ego. That claim that "This is my
discovery" belongs to the egoistic mind. Really, the ego always feels hurt if you say this is nothing original.
If someone says something and you say this is nothing original, he will feel hurt. If someone writes a book
and you say, "This is nothing original; it has been written many times by so many people, so why have you
unnecessarily labored on it?" he will feel hurt. Every author, every thinker, tries to prove somehow that
whatsoever he is saying is original. This is a new disease.

In the West, if you are not saying anything original then what is the use of saying it? Why are you

saying it? Do not say it. In the East, quite the opposite has been the case. If you are saying something
original, then the East will say: "Wait and ponder over it. Do not assert it, do not say it, because if it is
original then something must be wrong with it; otherwise someone must have known it before. The truth is
eternal. If it is original, then something must be wrong with it! You wait! Do not tell anyone; otherwise you
will be in difficulty because you will be proved to be a liar. Wait, ponder, meditate. The world has existed
so eternally, beginningless... how can you conceive that you come to know an original truth which was not
known before? It is impossible!"

But it happens because our span of knowledge is very little. It is just like this: in the season the trees will

bloom, the flowers will come. These flowers cannot know about the flowers of the last season. They cannot
know because they have never met them. They will think themselves so unique, so original: "We have never
been on this earth; this earth has become so beautiful because of us. Because we bloom, the whole existence
has bloomed with us."

They do not know that this has been going on eternally. Every year the season comes and the flowers

bloom. But the flowers cannot meet with each other, so every flower thinks that he has come for the first
time. This gives him a flavor, an ego. He feels he is something, somebody.

The Eastern emphasis has always been that truth is eternal; you can only rediscover it. Many have

known, many will know. You are just a part of a long procession. It is your season so you have bloomed --
but other buddhas have bloomed. It is just like when you fall in love: you think this type of love has never
been, that something new has entered into existence. No lover can believe that anyone ever could have
loved in the way he loves his beloved.

And this is good as far as it goes. This is good! How can you believe otherwise when you are in love?

You think others have loved but not this way; others have loved but it was not such a deep intense thing. It
has never happened; it is original.

And the same is with thoughts: when a thought appears on your mind, you think such a thought never

happened before. But thoughts are just like clouds: they gather in the sky every year, then they disappear
and then they gather again. The world moves in a repetitive circle.

So Indians, particularly wise Indians, have always been emphasizing that whatsoever they say is nothing

new; it has all been said before. This is a very deep nonegoistical attitude, and there is a very deep wisdom
hidden in it. How can truth wait for me to be discovered? How can it wait for me to discover it? It was
discovered again and again. But you discover it and it gets lost again because it cannot be transferred.

If I have come to a truth, I cannot give it to you. It cannot be transferred because truth is not a thing. It is

a happening in the being; it CANNOT be transferred. So the truth that I rediscover will be rediscovered
again. And when you rediscover it you will feel something new has happened, something original. But if
you know and if you can feel a nonegoistical way of life, then you will know that the rishi is right: it has
been said before, known before.

WHAT SPEECH CANNOT REVEAL BUT WHAT REVEALS SPEECH -- KNOW THOU THAT ALONE AS
BRAHMAN AND NOT THIS -- ANYTHING OBJECTIVE -- THAT PEOPLE WORSHIP HERE.

WHAT SPEECH CANNOT REVEAL, BUT WHAT REVEALS SPEECH.... You cannot say it, you can-not
speak it but through speech it is being expressed. Really, without it you cannot speak, without it you cannot
see, without it you cannot feel. It is your life! You cannot speak about it but he is the speaker; you cannot see it
anywhere but he is the seer; you cannot think about it but he is the thinker; you cannot do anything without it
because he is the doer. So whatsoever you do, he is revealed. YOU cannot reveal it but whatsoever you do he
is revealed because he alone is. Brahman means life: he alone is.

WHAT SPEECH CANNOT REVEAL BUT WHAT REVEALS SPEECH -- KNOW THOU THAT ALONE AS
BRAHMAN AND NOT THIS -- ANYTHING OBJECTIVE -- THAT PEOPLE WORSHIP HERE.

People go on worshipping idols. They make God an object also because we cannot feel comfortable

unless something is there in front of us. We feel uncomfortable, uneasy. A God unknown, unknowable, is
difficult. We create an idol and then we put the idol in front of us and worship it.

This is stupid in a way because you created the idol and now you are worshipping it as the creator. You

worship the idol as if the idol created you. You created the idol; the real creator is hidden behind. Really,
God is not in the worshipped object, it is in the worshipper. It is not in the object to which you pray, it is in
the innermost source from where the prayer bubbles up, from where the prayer comes up. It is always
within. But for us something becomes significant only when it is without because we have become fixed in
a mode where everything to be, must be objective. That creates the problem, so we have created temples and
churches and mosques just to objectify that which cannot be objectified. But human stupidity is such....

Mohammed preached that he cannot be objectified; you cannot make any idol of him. He was right. He

was saying what the Upanishad was saying. But what have the Mohammedans done? They thought it was
their duty to destroy idols, to destroy temples, to set them on fire. Because he cannot be objectified, so
wherever he is objectified, "Destroy the object."

See the human stupidity: Mohammed was trying to say that you can forget the object and move within.

But they did not forget the object, they became obsessed with the object again. "Move and destroy!" So
someone is worshipping God in a stone and someone is destroying the stone but both are attached to the
stone in their own ways and both think that the stone is very significant -- one to worship it and the other to
destroy it. One feels that if he does not worship this stone he will not be religious, and one feels that if he
does not destroy this stone he will not be religious. The stone is for both very significant. We go on moving
to the object. Either we love or we hate, but the object remains there.

The emphasis of those who have known is to forget the object and remain with the subjectivity alone.

Do not create any object, any image, any name, any form. Do not create anything. The creator is already
there; you cannot improve upon it. Do not do anything. Just move within and know it.

WHAT MIND DOES NOT COMPREHEND BUT WHAT COMPREHENDS THE MIND -- KNOW THOU THAT
ALONE AS BRAHMAN AND NOT THIS THAT PEOPLE WORSHIP HERE.

Mind cannot comprehend him, but he can comprehend the mind. Mind is included in him -- everything

is included; even the stone is included in him. But the stone cannot include him: this is the point. Draw a big
circle and then draw a small circle in it. The big circle includes the small circle; the small circle is part of
the big circle but the small circle cannot include the big circle.

Your mind is included in the divine but your mind cannot include the divine. It is a part and the part

cannot include the whole. The whole comprehends all, includes all. And when a part starts saying, "I
include the whole," the part has gone mad, the part has gone neurotic.

You -- whenever you try to comprehend that, the total, through the mind, you are doing something

absurd. It is impossible! A drop of water cannot include the ocean but the ocean includes it. And if the drop
of water says, "I am the ocean," then the drop has gone crazy. But this drop of water can become the ocean.
If this drop of water drops into the ocean, loses the boundaries, loses the finiteness, the limitations, then that
drop has become the ocean.

The mind cannot say, "I know." The mind can drop into the oceanic totality and then it is included there.
Whatsoever we worship is just a game. It is good: if you feel good worshipping, then it is good. It is a

good game and I never intend to destroy anybody's game. If you worship, if you feel good going to a
church, it is good: go on doing it. But remember that you are missing the basic point: the ultimate is within
the worshipper. So while you worship do not focus your eyes on the worshipped object. Focus yourself
within on the worshipper. THERE it will be revealed, THERE it is hidden.

The Supreme Doctrine

Chapter #5

Chapter title: It is Your Being

10 July 1973 pm in Mt Abu Meditation Camp

Archive code: 7307105

ShortTitle: DOCTRN05

Audio:

Yes

Video:

No

Length: 104 mins

The first question:

BELOVED OSHO,
YOU HAVE SAID THAT INTELLECTUAL LEARNING AND KNOWLEDGE HAVE HELPED NO ONE AND
THAT THE UPANISHAD SAYS THAT NOTHING IS TO BE DENIED. IF THE INTELLECT IS THERE AND
WE ARE NOT TO DENY IT, WHAT IS THE BEST WAY IN WHICH TO USE IT?

The first thing to be understood about the intellect is this: that the intellect exists on denial. The very

function of the intellect is to deny, to say no. The emphasis of the Upanishad on not to deny is basically to
relieve you of your intellectual effort.

Intellect always says no. So the more one becomes intellectual, the more and more one becomes

incapable of saying yes. Yes-saying means faith, no means doubt, and intellect depends on doubt. If you
doubt, intellect has a function. If you do not doubt, there is no function left for the intellect.

Intellect is denial. So when the Upanishad says, "Do not deny anything," it means that the intellect will

have no function at all. Think of your own mind: whenever you say no, it starts working; whenever you say
yes, yes becomes the end and there is no further journey.

This age is one of the most intellectual ones, and this intellectual milieu is created by thoroughgoing

doubt about everything. The greater the intellect, the more skeptical it will be. It can function very keenly if
you say no. If you say yes, intellect is annihilated; hence, the emphasis of all religions on faith -- because in
faith intellect cannot move. There is no basis for it to move. There is no further goal; yes becomes the end.
If you can say yes to the whole existence, thinking will stop. Thinking has the quality of denial. The master
says, "Do not deny." In the nondenial, intellect disappears.

And you ask me what to do about intellect. It will not be there. You will not have to do anything; you

will not have to deny it. And you cannot deny intellect because denial is intellectual. If you deny intellect,
the very denial gives more roots to your intellectual mind. You will become a victim. If you deny intellect,
you will become a victim of a deeper intellectual effort. You cannot deny it. How can you deny it? --
because denial starts thinking. You can find reasons why not to deny, but those reasons will be appeals to
the intellect. You can find arguments why to deny, but those arguments will be intellectual.

Faith has no arguments for or against. So really, those who have given arguments for God's existence I

call irreligious because arguments have nothing to do with religion. There have been many known thinkers
all over the world, particularly in the West, who have tried to prove that God exists. I call them irreligious --
because if you can prove God's existence, then the intellect becomes superior to God's existence. Then it is
proved through the intellect, and whatsoever is proved through intellect can be disproved by the same
intellect. So those who try to prove, really they are the persons who give challenge to others to disprove.

Atheists exist because there are argumentative theists. When you say, "Because of this God exists," then

you are giving a challenge to someone, to someone's intellect, who can say, "This reasoning is false." And

arguments can be given for and against, ad infinitum; they never reach to any conclusion. Really religious
persons have not argued about God: they have lived. They have lived in the way in which one should live if
God is. You cannot see God, but you can see a divine person. You can see a person who is living God. That
is the only proof. But that proof is not for the intellect. That proof is not intellectual at all. That proof is
absolutely beyond intellect -- it reaches directly to your heart; you feel it.

Whenever you see a Ramakrishna or a Ramana, whenever you see a person like Jesus, it is not the

intellect which comes to conclude that this man is divine. You feel it first. Your heart starts vibrating in a
new dimension; you feel a new perfume of being. But this is feeling; you cannot prove it.

Intellect can prove or disprove, but it can never give you faith. Even when it proves, it proves only

itself; nothing else is proved. If you can prove the existence of God, you have NOT proved the existence of
God; you have simply proved that you are a very intellectual being, that is all. You have proved that you
have a very keen intellect, you have proved your own ego, nothing else. And intellect is the most subtle
food for the ego. Because of it you feel that you know, you feel that you can prove, you feel that you can
disprove, you feel to be the center. Then even God depends on you: if you prove him, then he is; if you say
no, then he is no more. He is secondary. Remember, for intellect everything is secondary and intellect is
primary. Everything else becomes number two; intellect remains number one.

Faith says that this supremacy of intellect should be thrown away. Only then can the total being assert

itself. And then being is primary and intellect becomes secondary. Then existence is primary; then intellect
is just a part. Intellect is dictatorial; faith is democratic because faith gives expression to your whole being.
Intellect is only one part trying to be supreme.

When you do as the Upanishad says and you do not deny, then the intellect disappears. If you do not

deny, you will not have the intellect there at all. The no is needed. That is the foothold. Without the no the
intellect cannot stand. So the question, "What to do about intellect?" really doesn't arise. Do not deny
anything and there will be no intellect to be worried about.

The second question:

BELOVED OSHO,
THE FIRST FEW DAYS OF ACTIVE MEDITATION TEND TO TIGHTEN MUSCLES, CAUSING PAIN
EVERYWHERE. IS THERE ANY WAY TO GET OVER THAT?

Go on doing it! You will get over it -- and the reasons are obvious. There are two reasons. First, it is a

vigorous exercise and your body has to get attuned to it. So for three or four days you will feel that the
whole body is aching. With any new exercise it will happen. But after four days you will get over it and
your body will feel stronger than ever.

But this is not very basic. The basic thing goes deeper, and the basic thing is what modern psychologists

have come to know. Your body is not simply physical. In your body, in your muscles, in the structure of
your body, many other things have entered through suppressions. If you suppress anger, the poison goes
into the body. It goes into the muscles, it goes into the blood. If you suppress anything, it is not only a
mental thing, it is also physical -- because you are not really divided. You are not body AND mind; you are
bodymind -- psychosomatic. You are both together. So whatsoever is done with your body reaches to the
mind and whatsoever is done with the mind reaches to the body, as body and mind are two ends of the same
entity.

For instance, if you get angry what happens to the body? Whenever you get angry certain poisons are

released into the blood. Without those poisons you will not get mad enough to be angry. You have particular
glands in the body, and those glands release certain chemicals. Now this is scientific, this is not just a
philosophy. Your blood becomes poisoned.

That is why, when you are angry, you can do something which you cannot do ordinarily -- because you

are mad. You can push a big rock: you cannot do it ordinarily. You cannot even believe afterwards that you
could have pushed this rock or thrown it or lifted it. When you are back to normal again, you will not be
capable of lifting it again because you are not the same. Particular chemicals were circulating in the blood.
You were in an emergency condition; your total energy was brought to be active.

But when an animal gets angry, he gets angry. He has no morality about it, no teaching about it. He

simply gets angry and the anger is released. When you get angry, you get angry in a way similar to any
animal. But then there is society, morality, etiquette, and thousands of things. You have to push the anger

down. You have to show that you are not angry; you have to smile -- a painted smile! You have to create a
smile, and you push the anger down. What is happening to the body? The body was ready to fight -- either
to fight or to fly, to escape from the danger, either to face it or escape from it. The body was ready to DO
something: anger is just a readiness to do something. The body was going to be violent, aggressive.

If you could be violent and aggressive, then the energy would be released. But you cannot be -- it is not

convenient, so you push it down. Then what will happen to all those muscles which were ready to be
aggressive? They will become crippled. The energy pushes them to be aggressive, and you push them
backwards not to be aggressive. There will be a conflict. In your muscles, in your blood, in your body
tissues, there will be conflict. They are ready to express something and you are pushing them not to express.
You are suppressing them. Then your body becomes crippled.

And this happens with every emotion. And this goes on day after day for years. Then your body

becomes crippled all over. All the nerves become crippled. They are not flowing, they are not liquid, they
are not alive. They have become dead, they have become poisoned. And they have all become entangled.
They are not natural.

Look at any animal and see the grace of the body. What happens to the human body? Why is it not so

graceful? Why? Every animal is so graceful: why is the human body not so graceful? What has happened to
it? You have done something with it: you have crushed it and the natural spontaneity of its flow has gone. It
has become stagnant. In every part of your body there is poison. In every muscle of your body there is
suppressed anger, suppressed sexuality, suppressed greed -- and everything -- suppressed jealousy, hatred.
Everything is suppressed there. Your body is re#ally diseased.

So when you start meditating, all these poisons will be released. And wherever the body has become

stagnant, it will have to melt, it will become liquid again. And this is a great effort. After forty years of
living in a wrong way, then suddenly meditating, the whole body is in an upheaval. You will feel aching all
over the body. But this aching is good, and you have to welcome it. Allow the body to become again a flow.
Again it will become graceful and childlike; again you will gain the aliveness. But before that aliveness
comes to you the dead parts have to be straightened and this is going to be a little painful.

Psychologists say that we have created an armor around the body and that armor is the problem. If you

are allowed total expression when you get angry what will you do? When you get angry, you start crushing
your teeth together; you want to do something with your nails and with your hands, because that's how your
animal heritage will have it. You want to do something with your hands, to destroy something.

If you don't do anything your fingers will become crippled; they will lose the grace, the beauty. They

will not be alive limbs. And the poison is there. So when you shake hands with someone, really there is no
touch, no life, because your hands are dead.

You can feel this. Touch a small child's hand -- a subtle difference is there. When the child really gives

you his hand... if he is not giving, then it is alright -- he will withdraw. He will not give you a dead hand, he
will simply withdraw. But if he wants to give you his hand, then you will feel that his hand is as if it is
melting into your hand. The warmth, the flow -- as if the whole child has come to the hand. The very touch,
and he expresses all the love that it is possible to express.

But the same child when grown up will shake hands as if a hand is just a dead instrument. He will not

come in it, he will not flow through it. This has happened because there are blocks. Anger is blocked...
really, before your hand becomes alive again to express love, it will have to pass through agony, it will have
to pass through a deep expression of anger. If the anger is not released, that anger is blocking and love
cannot come out of it.

Your whole body has become blocked, not only your hands. So you can embrace someone, you can take

someone near your chest, but that is not synonymous with taking someone near your heart. These are two
different things. You can take someone near your chest: this is a physical phenomenon. But if you have an
armor around your heart, a blocking of emotions, then the person remains as distant as he ever was; no
intimacy is possible. But if you REALLY take a person near, and there is no armor, no wall between you
and the person, then the heart will melt into the other. There will be a meeting, a communion.

Your body has to release many poisons. You have become toxic, and you will have pain -- mm? --

because those poisons have settled down. Now I #am creating a chaos again. This meditation is to create
chaos within you so that you can be rearranged -- so that a new arrangement becomes possible. You must be
des-troyed as you are, only then can the new be born. As you are, you have gone totally wrong. You have to
be destroyed and only then can something new be created. There will be pain, but this pain is worthwhile.

So go on doing the meditation and allow the body to have pain. Allow the body not to resist; allow the

body to move into this agony. This agony comes from your past but it will go. If you are ready it will go.
And when it goes, then for the first time you will have a BODY. Right now you have only an imprisonment,
a capsule, dead. You are encapsulated; you do not have an agile, alive body. Even animals have more
beautiful, more alive bodies than you.

By the way, that is why we have become so much obsessed with clothes -- because the body is not worth

showing. We have become so much obsessed with clothes! Whenever you stand naked you will see what
you have done to your body. Clothes go on hiding your body from you.

This has been my experience through so many meditation camps: if some people become naked in the

camps, really only these people are the ones who have beautiful bodies; thus, they are not afraid. Those who
have ugly bodies come and they complain, and they say, "This is not good, people going nude!" Their fear
is natural. They are not really afraid of others going nude, they are afraid of themselves; they cannot face
their own bodies.

This disease is a vicious circle, because if you do not have a live body you want to hide it, and when you

hide it, it becomes more and more dead -- because then there is no need to be alert about its being alive.

Through centuries of clothing we have lost touch with our own bodies. If your head is cut off and you

encounter your own body without a head, I am sure you will not be able to recognize that this is your body
-- or will you be able to recognize it? You will not be able to recognize it because you are not even
acquainted with your own body. You do not have any feeling about it; you are simply living in it without
caring about it.

We have done much violence to our bodies. So in this chaotic meditation I am forcing your bodies to be

alive again. Many blocks will be broken; many settled things will become unsettled again; many systems
will become liquid again. There will be pain, but welcome it. It is a blessing and you will come over it.
Continue! There is no need to think what to do. You simply continue the meditation. I have seen hundreds
and hundreds of people passing through the same process. Within a few days the pain is gone. And when the
pain is gone, you will have a subtle joy around your body.

You cannot have it right now because the pain is there. You may know it or you may not know it but the

pain is there all over your body. You have simply become unconscious about it because it has always been
with you. Whatsoever is always there, you become unconscious about. Through meditation you will become
conscious and then the mind will say, "Don't do this; the whole body is aching." Do not listen to the mind.
Simply go on doing it.

Within a certain period the pain will be thrown out. And when the pain is thrown out, when your body

has again become receptive and there is no block, no poisons around it, you will always have a subtle
feeling of joy wrapped around you. Whatsoever you are doing or not doing, you will always feel a subtle
vibration of joy around your body.

Really, joy only means that your body is in a symphony, nothing else -- that your body is in a musical

rhythm, nothing else. Joy is not pleasure; pleasure has to be derived from something else. Joy is just to be
yourself -- alive, fully vibrant, vital. A feeling of a subtle music around your body and within your body, a
symphony -- that is joy. You can be joyful when your body is flowing, when it is a riverlike flow.

It will come but you will have to pass through suffering, through pain. That is part of your destiny

because you have created it. But it goes. If you do not stop in the middle, it goes. If you stop in the middle,
then the old settlement will be there again. Within four or five days you will feel okay -- just the old, as you
have always been. Be aware of that okayness.

The third question:

BELOVED OSHO,
WILL YOU PLEASE INDICATE SOMETHING ABOUT THE FIFTH STAGE IN ACTIVE MEDITATION.

Nothing can be said about it; that is why I never talk about it. The fourth is the last -- the fifth will

happen but nothing can be said about it. There is no need either. The fifth is not a state, it is your being. The
first four are states, steps, but the fifth is not a state, it is not a step. It is your own being, it is your nature.
But nothing can be said about it. If you come to the fourth the fifth will happen to you, that much is certain.
If you can come to a total silence in the fourth, then the fifth will happen. It is a growth of your silence.

But nothing can be said about it -- or whatsoever can be said will be misunderstood. For example, if I

say it is absolute bliss -- and it has been said that it is absolute bliss -- you will misunderstand it because you

do not know what bliss is. You know certain pleasures and you think that bliss must be something like
pleasure. It is not! You can think only in terms of pleasure because that is what you are acquainted with.
You can think it is infinite pleasure; it is not. It is not pleasure at all.

Or you can think negatively that there will be no pain, no suffering -- as Buddha has said. Buddha said:

In that ultimate state of being there will be no suffering. And when people used to ask to him, "This is not
enough. Tell us something more. You are saying what will not be there. Please tell us something about what
will be there. You are saying that there will be no suffering but what will be there?" Buddha refused to
answer. He said, "I will not say anything. This much I can say: there will be no suffering."

But even that will be misunderstood -- because you are left nowhere, hanging. If it is said that it will be

pleasure-like, then it is wrong. If it is said that there will be no pain, it is better than the first, but still not
exactly right because you may carry the impression that it is going to be of negativity when it is not. Buddha
was misunderstood in this country. He was thought to be a nihilist, a negativist, who was saying that in
nirvana there will be no suffering, that is all. But no bliss, SATCHITANANDA -- no existence, no
consciousness -- simply no-suffering?

But whatsoever is said will be misunderstood because we understand only that which we know. You

know pleasure, you know pain, but in the fifth there will be neither. The duality will cease: there will be no
pleasure, there will be no pain. Now it becomes inconceivable. What will it be like? If there is no pain and
no pleasure, what will it be like? It becomes inconceivable; you cannot imagine it.

Bertrand Russell has said somewhere that if it is really so, that nirvana or the ultimate is beyond pain

and pleasure, then it must be like a deep slumber, a deep sleep. That seems logical. If there is no pain and no
pleasure, how can you be conscious? -- because consciousness needs something to be conscious about. If
there is nothing -- no pain, no pleasure -- then there is no challenge for consciousness to be there, so you
will fall into a deep coma.

Everything will be misunderstood; that is why I never talk about it. I simply lead you to the door of the

temple and leave you to enter and know. I leave you at the door of the temple. These four steps help you to
reach the door. Then you can enter. You are standing right in front of the door and the door is open. If the
temple magnetizes you, calls you, challenges you, you will enter. No one has returned back from the fifth
step. No one can return because it is the ultimate ecstasy. Your whole being simply gravitates toward it.

The fifth is left out of discussion. It is your own being; it is not a state. The first four are states. In the

first you are working with your vital energy, with your PRANA -- with breathing. Breathing is life. In the
first step, you are working with your life. You are destroying the pattern of your breathing. Through chaotic
breathing, you are destroying the settled pattern. And if you can destroy the pattern of breathing, then all the
patterns in all your bodies will be loosened -- because breathing is the most subtle thing to work with.

You may not have observed but whenever your mind changes, your breathing changes. Even a subtle

change in mood and your breathing immediately changes. Or, to be more correct, even before the mood
changes, the breathing has already changed. When you are happy you breathe differently; when you are
angry you breathe differently; when you are tense you breathe differently; when you are sad you breathe
differently; when you are relaxed you breathe differently. The rhythm always goes on changing.

Observe it. Observe the moods of your breathing. You are not breathing the same way the whole day. In

the morning you breathe differently, in the evening differently. Just by knowing about your breath,
everything can be said about your mind, what is happening to your mind.

Sooner or later, when medical science and psychology can penetrate into this phenomenon of breathing

more deeply, they will make a graph of it. Your breathing graph will show through what types of moods you
have been passing throughout the day. When you are asleep you breathe differently; when you are alert you
breathe differently, when you are sleepy you breathe differently. Breathing can be changed easily, and if
you change the breathing you change the mind.

You can work from both ways. There are many schools of yoga. Some schools, particularly the schools

of raja yoga, start with the mind. They say first change the mind, then the breathing will change by itself.
And there are other schools, particularly of hatha yoga, which say change the breathing and the mind will
follow. Both are right because both are related.

Do one thing: while you are feeling relaxed, someday just lying in your armchair, and the whole world

seems to be happy and at ease and you feel at home, note your breathing. Just observe the rhythm: how are
you inhaling and how are you exhaling, what is the proportion of time, how much gap is there between
inhalation and exhalation? Note everything; then do one thing more. Sometime, when you feel angry,
breathe the way you were breathing when you were relaxed. It will be impossible to be angry. Then you

cannot be angry. You CANNOT be angry! It will be impossible to be angry because anger needs a different
type of breathing.

When you are in love, sitting with your friend or with your wife or with your beloved, note down how

you are breathing. Then try to breathe that way anywhere and suddenly you will feel love bubbling up. Note
it down. While just lying on the bed with your beloved, note down how you are breathing. Then sit beside a
tree and breathe the same way. Suddenly you will feel that the tree has become the beloved because now the
love is flowing.

When unaware of this fact you unnecessarily create much misery for yourself. You go on breathing

wrongly in wrong places and you create much riddle, much puzzle and confusion.

In the first step, we work with breathing to create a chaos, because unless a chaos is there YOU cannot

be born. The first step is to break all the old patterns of breathing.

In the second step, we are working with emotions to bring out all the suppressed emotions. If you have

really taken deep, chaotic breaths, the suppressed emotions will come out easily. They will start coming out
by themselves, and you will not need to do anything. The second step will follow automatically if the first
has been done rightly. If you have not been resistant in the first, the second will follow easily. In the second
we are working with the emotions to bring them out, to act them out, to throw them out.

When you are angry with someone and you throw your anger on him, you are creating a chain reaction.

Now he too will be angry and this may continue for lives and you will go on being enemies. You can
continue this for centuries. It is not going to end. Where will it end? There is only one possibility. You can
end it only in meditation, nowhere else, because in meditation you are not angry with someone: you are
simply angry.

Remember, this difference is basic. You are not angry with someone; you are simply angry, and the

anger is released into the cosmos. You are not hateful toward anyone. If hate comes, you are simply hateful
and the hate is thrown out. In meditation, emotions are not addressed; they are unaddressed. They move into
the cosmos, and the cosmos purifies everything.

Remember, it is just like a dirty river falling into the ocean: the ocean will purify it. Whenever your

anger, your hate, your sexuality, moves into the cosmos, into the ocean, it purifies it. Whenever a dirty river
falls into another river, then the other river also becomes dirty. When you are angry with someone, you are
throwing your dirt at him. Then he will also throw his at you and this will become a mutual dirtying process.

In meditation you are throwing yourself into the cosmos to be purified. All the energy that you throw is

purified in the cosmos. The cosmos is so vast and so great an ocean, you cannot make it dirty. In meditation
we are not related with persons. In meditation we are related directly to the cosmos.

In the second step, we are throwing emotions out. It is a catharsis. In the third we are using a mantra:

Hoo. It is a Sufi sound just like the Hindu sound Aum but more useful for the modern man than Aum can
be. Aum is a very delicate sound. When you say Aum, it never goes below the heart. It is not very violent; it
is very nonviolent. One of the most nonviolent sounds is Aum.

It was invented for a different type of people from you -- for those who were very loving and

nonviolent, for those who were simply natural, simple; for those who lived in nature, in villages; for those
who were not educated, uneducated; for those who were simply human, not very much cultivated and
conditioned. They were animal-like -- pure, simple, innocent. The Aum was invented for them. Even this
much was enough to change them. It is a very delicate hammer, Aum. It hits the heart very delicately. But it
was enough for them because they had hearts. For you it will not do. You need a very violent hammer.

Sufis invented this second sound, Hoo. This is part of Allah-Hoo. Sufis repeat, "Allah! Allah!" and

when you repeat it continuously, it becomes "Allah-Hoo! Allah-Hoo! Allah-Hoo! Allah-Hoo!" Then the
beginning part is dropped, the Allah is dropped, and only Hoo is retained. Then it becomes, "Hoo! Hoo!
Hoo!" When you say Hoo it goes directly to the sex center. It penetrates directly to the sex center; it hits the
sex center.

This age is so sexual that you need a hammering on the sex energy. The heart is no more there. If you

are going to try Aum, you are knocking at a door which is vacant. No one lives there now. The center of
gravity has shifted down to the sex center. Your center is not the heart. The heart can be the center when
you are centered in love but now you are centered in sex, not in love.

Psychologists say that love is nothing but a foreplay to sex. They are right -- because they have no other

specimen to study. They study you and then they come to conclude that love is nothing but a foreplay -- just
creating a situation in which sex can happen, nothing else. So when sex has happened, love disappears. It is
just like when you feel hungry you gravitate toward food and look at food with enchanted eyes. But when

your hunger is satiated, you look away from the food. All the enchantment is lost.

So when you love your wife or your husband, the love is just an etiquette to enter into sex -- because it

will be too rude to start.... So it just plays like a lubricating agent. And when sex is satisfied, the husband
moves to his own side of the bed and goes to sleep. He is finished; all the enchantment is gone. It will come
again only when he feels a type of hunger. Psychologists say that love is nothing but a foreplay -- just a
mannerism. And they are right because they do not know any other type of man.

Aum was invented, discovered, for a different type: for those who were in love. Not that they never had

sex: they had it; otherwise you would not have been here. They were having sex but the basic difference of
quality is this: they were centered in love and their sex was but an expression of it, nothing else. Love was
basic and sex was just one of the many expressions of it -- the deepest expression, but expression of love.
They loved first and then sex happened. It was not cerebral, it was not planned.

If you want to use the contemporary jargon, then I can say that sex was nothing but an afterplay. The

psychologists say that love is nothing but a foreplay, but I say that then sex was nothing but an afterplay --
just to finish the game. It was the peak but it was not the center. Love was the center. Then the heart
functioned in a different way, vibrated in a different way. Then Aum was enough to work with. Aum will
help a person who is very loving and who has a heart; otherwise, it will not help him.

Hoo is the sound for this age. It will hit you directly at the sex center. If you really hit loudly with "Hoo!

Hoo! Hoo!" you will feel a subtle hammering inside. And sex energy can move in two ways: it can move
outward and it can move inward.

When you feel attracted to a woman or to a man, the energy has started moving outward. Really, a

woman or a man -- a person of the opposite sex -- is hitting you from without. And this is literally true.
When you feel that some woman is attracting you, if you can become alert and observing you will feel a
subtle hit at your sex center. The feminine energy, or the masculine energy hits you on that center. The same
hit will be felt when you shout Hoo, but from within. And if you go on hammering the sex center from
within, an opening is created and the energy begins to flow inward -- upward.

Once you know how to make this energy flow upward and withinward, you will reach to higher

orgasms, to higher peaks of ecstasy, than you can ever reach with any woman or any man. An inner meeting
will have started.

The first step is to change your prana, your breathing pattern. The second stage is to throw your

emotions, the suppressed part of your mind -- a catharsis. And the third is to hit your life energy to move
upward. And when the energy starts moving upward, then you are not to do anything, you are simply to lie
down as if dead.

There is to be no diversion there. The energy simply moves upward and you are not to do anything. That

is why I go on emphasizing not to move. After the third step when I say "Stop!" stop completely. Do not do
anything at all because anything can become a diversion and you miss the point. Anything, just a cough or a
sneeze, and you may miss the whole thing because the mind has become diverted. Then the flow will stop
immediately because your attention has moved.

Do not do anything. You are not going to die! Even if the sneeze is coming and you do not sneeze for

ten minutes, you will not die. If you feel like coughing, if you feel an irritation in the throat and you do not
do anything, you are not going to die. Do not be afraid: no one has ever died. Remain DEAD as far as the
body is concerned so that the energy can move in one flow.

When the energy moves upward you become more and more silent. Silence is the by-product of energy

moving upward and tension is the by-product of energy moving downward. You will be more and more in
anxiety when energy moves down; you will be more and more silent, quiet, calm and cool as energy moves
upward and inward. And these words downward and outward are synonymous, and inward and upward are
synonymous. And when you have become silent, that energy is moving like a flood, it is passing through all
the chakras, all the centers. And when it passes through all the chakras, it cleanses them, it purifies them, it
makes them dynamic, alive, and the flood goes upward, upward to the last chakra.

Sex is the first chakra, the first center, the lowest -- and we exist at the lowest. That is why we know life

only at its minimum. When the energy flows upward and reaches to the last chakra, to the SAHASRAR,
energy is at its maximum, life is at its maximum. Then you feel as if the whole cosmos has become silent:
not even a single sound is there. Everything becomes absolutely silent when the energy comes to the last
chakra.

You know the first chakra; it will be easy to understand through that. When the energy comes to the sex

center, you become absolutely tense. The whole body is feverish, your every cell is in a fever. Your

temperature goes high, your blood pressure goes high, your breathing becomes mad. Your whole body is in
a temporary delirium -- at the lowest.

Quite the opposite is the case at the last chakra. Your whole body becomes so cool, so silent, as if it has

disappeared. You cannot feel it. You have become bodiless. And when you are silent the whole existence is
silent because the existence is nothing but a mirror: it reflects you. In thousands and thousands of mirrors, it
reflects you. When you are silent the whole existence has become silent.

This is the fourth step and I will not say anything about the fifth. This is the door -- absolute silence.

Then you can enter the temple and you can know it but I cannot say it. And if you come to know it, you will
also not be able to say anything about it. It is inexpressible.
The last question:

BELOVED OSHO,
IN THE MORNING AND AFTERNOON MEDITATIONS I START OFF WITH VIGOROUS MOVEMENTS, BUT
SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE -- ESPECIALLY AS THE MUSIC AND THE SURROUNDING SCREAMING
INCREASE -- A STRANGE SILENCE ENVELOPS ME AND THE MOVEMENTS GRADUALLY DIE DOWN.
THIS SILENCE DEEPENS AS THE TEMPO OF THE MUSIC MOUNTS AND I FEEL AS IF I AM A CENTER
OF SILENCE IN THE SURROUNDING TEMPEST. IT FEELS WELCOME. IS THIS A REACTION AND
HENCE TO BE DISCOURAGED? SHOULD I WILLFULLY CONTINUE THE VIGOROUS MOVEMENT AND
REMAIN SILENT ONLY AT THE END? EVEN AT THE END, WHEN WE ARE TO CELEBRATE, I ENJOY
REMAINING SILENT -- AND THE MORE THE MUSIC AND SCREAMING, THE DEEPER THE SILENCE
TENDS TO BE.

This is the silence I was talking about just now. When the energy floods upward, this silence will

happen to you. Do not discourage it. This is what we are endeavoring for. Welcome it! This is the guest for
which we are waiting. Start vigorously. But if you feel that the movement and the noise are dying down by
themselves and a deeper silence is descending upon you, and the storm all around you and the noise and the
screaming and the maddening milieu do not affect your silence -- rather, they deepen it -- then you can be
certain that this is real and you are not deceiving yourself. Then remain silent. And at the end this will
happen. If you have become really silent, silence will be your celebration.

But it may be different with different individuals; it depends. It depends on the type of individual.

Someone would like to express his joy by dancing, someone by singing, or some will simply weep: tears
will flow down not in agony, but in bliss. Someone else may remain just silent: this is his celebration.

So do not get worried about how to celebrate. The way it happens to you is your celebration. And if this

type of silence comes to you, then welcome it, enjoy it. Cooperate with it so that it deepens more and more.
Now get ready for the meditation.

The Supreme Doctrine

Chapter #6

Chapter title: God Is Existence

11 July 1973 am in Mt Abu Meditation Camp

Archive code: 7307110

ShortTitle: DOCTRN06

Audio:

Yes

Video:

No

Length: 112 mins

INVOCATION

WHAT SIGHT FAILS TO SEE, BUT WHAT SEES SIGHT -- KNOW THOU THAT ALONE AS BRAHMAN,
AND NOT THIS THAT PEOPLE WORSHIP HERE.
WHAT HEARING FAILS TO HEAR, BUT WHAT HEARS HEARING -- KNOW THOU THAT ALONE AS
BRAHMAN, AND NOT THIS THAT PEOPLE WORSHIP HERE.
WHAT PRANA DOES NOT REVEAL, BUT WHAT REVEALS PRANA -- KNOW THOU THAT ALONE AS
BRAHMAN, AND NOT THIS THAT PEOPLE WORSHIP HERE.

This century started with a very strange declaration. The declaration was made by Friedrich Nietzsche.

He said, "God is dead, and hence man is totally free from now on." The declaration looked very strange the
moment it was made but it proved prophetic. And, by and by, it became the base of the modern mind.

Really, for the modern man, God is dead. It is not that God is dead: if God can be dead then nothing can

be alive, because by God we mean the essential, eternal life, the very ground of existence. But for modern
man God is dead. Or, we can say in another way that modern man is dead toward God. The relationship has
broken; the bridge is no longer there. Whether you believe or disbelieve, it makes no difference. Your belief
is superficial; it doesn't go very deep.

Your disbelief is also superficial. When belief itself is superficial, how can disbelief go very deep?

When theists are very superficial, how can atheists be very deep? When the yes itself has lost its meaning,
how can the no carry any meaning? All the meaning that atheism can carry comes from the depth of theism.
When there are people who can say with their total being YES to God, only then does the no become
meaningful. It is secondary.

God is dead, and with God even the disbelief is dead. Belief is dead and with it the disbelief is also dead.

This century and the modern mind are, in a way, in a very peculiar situation. It has never been so before.
There have been persons who were theists who really believed that God exists. There were persons who
were really atheists and who believed with the same intensity that God does not exist. But the modern mind
is indifferent: it doesn't care. Whether God exists or not, it is irrelevant. No one is interested in proving it
one way or the other.

Really, this is the meaning of Nietzsche's declaration that God is dead. You do not care even to deny

him. You do not care even to argue against him. The bridge is simply broken. We have no relationship with
him -- neither for nor against. Why has this happened? Why has this phenomenon become so prominent in
the modern mind -- this indifference? We will have to seek the causes.

The first cause is that we have always been thinking of God as a person. To think about God as a person

is false, untrue, and that idea had to die. The idea that God is a person -- controlling, managing, creating,
maintaining -- is false. God is not a person. The idea became so significant because of our minds. Whenever
we think about something, either we can think of it as a thing or as a person. Only two alternatives are open:
when something exists, then it must either be a thing or a person.

We cannot think, we cannot imagine, that things and persons are both manifestations of something

deeper -- hidden. The same force becomes a thing; the same force becomes a person. But the force itself is
neither. God, taken as -- a person, is dead. The concept is dead, and the concept had to die because as a
person God cannot be proved. And taken as a person, he doesn't solve any problem. Rather, on the contrary,
he creates more -- because if God is a person then why is there evil in the world? He must be allowing evil,
he must be cooperating with it. Then he becomes an evil person.

Andre Gide has said somewhere, "It is difficult for me to conceive that God exists as good. But I can

conceive that God exists as evil, as Satan, because there is so much evil in the world, so much suffering, so
much pain, so much anguish." He cannot imagine that God is managing this whole affair. There must be
something like a devil in charge of it, a supreme devil. God must be good; otherwise what type of God is
he? A basic goodness must be there. But as the world appears, it seems that God is devilish and not good --
that he is playing with evil, and somehow it appears he is enjoying this whole suffering and torturing.

If God is a person, then there are two alternatives open: either he will become a devil or we will have to

deny that he exists. And the second is better. God as a person had to die because it became impossible to
conceive him as good. But the concept was wrong; it was anthropocentric. We conceived of God as a
supreme man, as a superman. God was conceived of as a magnified person like ourselves. We only
magnified man.

In The Bible it is said that God created man in his own image, but this is said by man. The real thing is

just the reverse: man created God in his own image. This man's image had to disappear. And it is good that
this type of God is dead, because with that concept of God removed we can start a fresh inquiry into what
God is.

The Upanishads are totally different. They never say God is a person; that is why they have a relevance

for the modern mind. They do not say that God is a person. They say that God is the very ground of being,
not a person. God is existence, not existential. This distinction is subtle, but try to understand it.

A thing exists, a man exists, a woman exists, a person exists, but they can go out of existence.

Whatsoever exists can become nonexistent -- it is implied. Whatsoever exists can go out of existence. But
existence itself cannot go out of existence. So we can say the chair exists, we can say the house exists,
because they can go out of existence. But we cannot say that God exists.

God is EXISTENCE -- it is not that God exists; God is simply synonymous with existence. Really, to

say that God is, is to repeat. God means is. It is bad language to say God is, because the very isness is God.
God means is -- isness. To say God exists is wrong. God is existence. Or God is just another term for
existence. Existence never dies, never goes out of existence. Forms come and go, forms change. Nothing is
permanent in the world of forms. So the Upanishads say NAMA and RUPA -- name and form -- they are the
world, and that which is beyond name and form is God. But what is beyond name and form? Existence itself
is beyond name and form.

The Upanishads think of God not as a person but as existence itself -- as the very ground of existence.

NAMA-RUPA-ATEET -- beyond name, beyond form. What is beyond name and beyond form? There are
trees around this house; they exist. There are hills beyond those trees; they exist. You are here; you exist. In
the trees, in the hills, in you, what is common? Form is not common: you have a different form, the trees
have a different form and the hills have an altogether different form. The names are not common, the forms
are not common. What is common? That common denominator will be God. You exist, trees exist, hills
exist. Existence is common: everything else is just accidental. The essential is that you exist, the trees exist,
the hills exist. Existence is common. That existence is God.

But the Upanishads never became very popular. They cannot become popular, because if God is

existence then for you all meaning is lost -- because then how to relate to existence? If God is a person, a
father, a mother, a brother, a beloved, you can relate, you can think of relationship. But how to relate with
existence? Existence is so pure, so abstract. How then do you pray to it? How do you call it? How do you
cry and weep before it? No one is there.

Because of this human weakness, the Upanishads never became very popular. They are so true that they

cannot become very popular. To make truth popular is almost impossible because the human mind will not
take it as it is. The human mind can only think, "If God is a person, then we can relate." That is why there is
so much influence of BHAKTI cults -- of devotional cults. One needs to pray, to be in devotion, to
surrender, and a person is there so it becomes easy. You can pray, you can talk, you can communicate. Of
course, there is no one there, but for you it becomes easy. If you can imagine that someone is listening to
your prayer, it becomes easy for you to pray.

No one is listening. There is just abstract existence which has no ears to listen, no eyes to see you, no

hands to touch you. But it will be difficult for you to pray. Because of this difficulty, man always thinks that
God is a person. Then everything becomes easy but everything becomes wrong. It becomes easy on the one
hand but it goes wrong on the other hand.

So THAT God is dead, and there is no possibility to revive him, no possibility to give blood or a

heartbeat again to him. He is really dead. That God cannot be introduced again in the world. We have
passed that moment. The human mind has become more mature; the childish attitude toward God cannot be
there again. But it is a hangover. We still go on thinking in terms which are dead. We still go on picturing
him although all name and form has dissolved.

The Upanishads have a relevance now. Five thousand years ago they were before their time. When this

Kenopanishad was written, it was before its time; now the time has come and the Kenopanishad can be
understood. The Upan-ishads can be understood because God as a person is no more there. Now God can
exist only as an impersonal existence.

But there will be difficulties because then you will have to change everything: your whole religion will

have to be changed, because the center disappears. For the old religion the center disappears, and with a
new center a new type of religion will arise -- a new religious attitude.

Hence, my insistence is on meditation not on prayer. Why? -- because prayer needs a person, meditation

needs no person there. You can meditate without there being a person to listen to you, because meditation is

not prayer; it is not addressed to anyone. It is just something you are doing without someone else being
there. It is not a relationship.

If God is dead, then prayer has become meaningless. Only meditation can become meaningful. When

you pray, you pray to someone. When you meditate, you simply meditate. When you pray, prayer is dual --
dualistic: you are there and someone else is there to whom the prayer is addressed. Meditation is
nondualistic -- ADVAITA; there is no one else. It is not a relationship at all. You are alone. And the more
you enter this aloneness, the more you enter meditation.

Meditation means the capacity to be alone -- not only to be alone, but to enjoy the very aloneness; to

become so alone that the other disappears completely -- the other is not there; to become so alone that you
start falling within yourself. The abyss opens, and you go on falling within yourself. When you fall within
yourself, sooner or later the form will be lost, the name will be lost, because they exist only on the surface.
The deeper you drown the more you come nearer to God -- God as existence, not as a person.

So this is the distinction. If you are praying God is outside you and that God is dead. Now that outside

God is no more. You can go on thinking about him, that he is somewhere there in heaven, in the skies, but
you yourself will feel this is childish. There is no one there. That God has been escaping from every abode.

Once, in the days of the Rigveda, he was living just near in the Himalayas, because the Himalayas were

unapproachable. He used to live on Kailash. But then men entered there, so he had to fly from there to
where he could not be found. Then he made his abode on the stars, on the moon. But now man has also
reached the moon, and now he is not there. Sooner or later, man will be everywhere and God will be
nowhere, because where can he hide? Nothing is unapproachable now, or everything will become
approachable sooner or later. He has no place to hide. That concept cannot exist anymore. God as a person
is not to be found there. And it is good because now you can turn from prayer to meditation.

Really, prayer is childish. In a way it is neurotic, because you create a God in your imagination and then

you start praying to it. And you can become so hallucinatory that you will start answering your prayer from
the side of the God. Then you really have gone mad. Then you are not in your senses. You can do it; many
people have done it and they are known as great saints. They were ill, because with God only silence is
possible. When you become silent you cannot relate to the other; you fall within yourself. God has now
come to be a force within. He is not a person without; he is now a force within.

There is one beautiful story in the old Indian literature. It is said it happened that God created the world,

and then he used to live on earth. It was his own creation, so he enjoyed it and lived with men and animals
and trees. But he was in a great difficulty, because the whole day he was disturbed and even in the night he
was not allowed to sleep, because people would go on complaining: "This is wrong, that is wrong; why have
you done this, why not do it this way?" Everyone would come to advise him and give suggestions.

He got so fed up that he called a council of his wise deities, wise counselors, and he asked them, "Find a

place for me to hide from my own creation, because they will kill me or I will commit suicide. Every single
moment they come to advise me, and they keep saying, 'Do this and do that; this is wrong, and this must not
be done,' and their opinions are so contradictory that if I follow them the whole thing will become a mess."

So someone suggested, "You go to the Himalayas. Hide there on Gourishankar, Everest."

"But," God said, "you cannot see further ahead. Some day Tensing and Hillary will come there, and it is
only a question of a few hours." For God it is only a question of a few hours, so he said, "This will not do."
Then someone suggested, "Go to the moon."
"But," he said, "you don't know. Only a few minutes more and men will be there."

Then one old, wise counselor came to him and said in his ear, "It will be better that you hide in man

himself. There he will never try to enter."

And it is said that God accepted the suggestion, and from that moment he has not been troubled at all.

Now the moment has come to trouble him there. And only through meditation can you enter there, not

through prayer, because prayer goes on believing that he lives somewhere -- on the moon, on Everest;
prayer goes on trying to locate him outside. Meditation completely washes away the whole concept that he
is outside, or that he can be prayed to, or that he can be talked to, or that you can relate to him. No, you can
simply move within yourself. And the deeper you move, the deeper you are moving in him. But this meeting
will be in silence because he is not the other. He is YOU -- he has been hiding as you.

If you can follow me, if you can understand the distinction between prayer and meditation -- God as a

person and God as existence -- then it will be easy to follow this sutra:

WHAT SIGHT FAILS TO SEE, BUT WHAT SEES SIGHT -- KNOW THOU THAT ALONE AS BRAHMAN,
AND NOT THIS THAT PEOPLE WORSHIP HERE.
WHAT SIGHT FAILS TO SEE... because if he is without, you can see him. Then the sight cannot fail to see.
Then ways and means can be found, and you can see him if he is without. But he is not there. That is why the
sutra says: WHAT SIGHT FAILS TO SEE. You cannot see him; there is no way to see. Whatsoever you do
you cannot see him. But people have seen him, so what to say about them? What to think of them? They have
seen!

There have been Christian mystics who say they have seen Jesus standing before them. There have been

Hindu devotees who say they have seen Krishna playing on his flute. There are other types of devotees all
over the world. Someone sees him as Rama, someone sees him as Krishna, someone sees him as Jesus,
someone as Mary... and they go on seeing.

This Upanishad says, WHAT SIGHT FAILS TO SEE -- then they must have been imagining. Beautiful

imaginings, very deeply satisfying! When you see Jesus standing before you, you are filled with a deep
contentment, with deep satisfaction. But it is still a dream -- beautiful, but a dream. A vision that you have
created, a vision that you have desired, a vision that you have longed to see. And whatsoever you long to
see you are capable of seeing, because the human mind can create any imagination and give it reality. That
is the capacity of the human mind. You can create a dream and you can make it real.

Of course, it will be real only for you, no one else. So when you see Jesus you cannot make him a vision

for others also. If your friends ask you, "Allow us also to see your vision," you cannot help. You cannot do
anything because a dream has a peculiar quality: it cannot be shared. You can dream your dream, I can
dream my dream -- but you cannot enter into my dream, I cannot enter into your dream. A dream is the most
private thing in the world. Everything can be made public, but dreams cannot be made public.

Howsoever you love your friend, your wife, your husband, howsoever intimate you are, you cannot

enter into each other's dreams. That remains private. And the same is the case with visions such as your
seeing Jesus. No one else can share this experience. You will walk with him on the street, and everyone will
see you walking alone; that is a private dream of your own.
I have heard one anecdote....

It happened once that a girl, a young girl, dreamt that a very beautiful prince came riding on a horse. He

picked her up, kissed her deeply, and then rode away with her. The horse was running fast and the girl asked
the prince, "Where are you leading me? Where are you taking me away to?"

The prince said, "It is YOUR dream -- you tell me. It is your dream, and you will have to tell me where I

am to lead you to. You tell me!"

When you are seeing a vision of Jesus or Krishna, really you have only divided your own mind into two

parts: one which has become the devotee and the other which has become the God. And if you ask Krishna,
"Where are you leading me?" he will say to you, "It is your dream. You tell me."

But when I say it is a dream I am not condemning it, I am simply stating a fact. It is beautiful. You can

enjoy it! There is nothing wrong -- what is wrong with enjoying a dream, a beautiful dream? You can enjoy
it. The problem arises if you start thinking it is reality. Then you are moving on dangerous terrain; then be
aware. The mind can project anything.

Go to any madhouse and see. There you will see everyone talking to someone who is not present;

everyone is talking and answering also. Every man there has become split. They go on seeing visions, they
go on seeing projections. And those projections appear so real to them that we have to put them in
madhouses because now they cannot be relied upon. They have lost contact with reality and are now in
contact only with the dream world.

That is what a madman means: he has lost contact with reality. With fact there is now no contact; only

with his own fiction is there contact. He lives in his own private world. He is not living with you in the real
world, he is not a part of it. You cannot convince a madman that he is wrong. That is impossible! He may
confuse you, but you cannot confuse him. And if you live a long time with a madman you may go mad
yourself.

I have heard it happened once that an emperor became mad. He had a passion for playing chess, so some

psychologist suggested that if a great chess player went on playing chess with him, this might relax his
mind. He was still interested in chess. The whole world had become nonexistent; only chess had remained

as a link to the real world. So the greatest champion was called, and that champion played chess with that
mad emperor.

For one year this continued -- he was playing chess with the mad emperor. And in the end it happened

that the emperor became okay, but the chess player became mad. He traveled back to reality and the poor
man who was playing chess with him became mad.

If you live with a madman for one year, it will be difficult for you not to become mad. He will confuse

you, but you cannot confuse him. He is beyond that. You cannot touch him, because he lives in his own
private world. You cannot enter that world. It is impossible to enter into his private world. And you cannot
convince him that he is wrong. Wrong and right, true and false, are the distinctions of the real world. In the
dream world nothing is wrong, nothing is right. Whatsoever is, is right by its own right; just by being there
it is right.

There are religious madnesses, there are secular madnesses. People can go mad in two ways -- a secular

way and a religious way. When you go mad in a religious way, people will respect you because they think
you have achieved something. So remember, do not go mad the secular way; whenever you want to go mad,
don't go the secular way, always try the religious way. Then people will respect you -- but only in the East.
It is now no longer so in the West: whatsoever the type, they will call you mad.

Whenever you are projecting a reality through your own mind, you are creating an illusion around

yourself and then you can see. The Upanishads are so realistic. They say you cannot see: WHAT SIGHT
FAILS TO SEE, BUT WHAT SEES SIGHT. You cannot see him through the eyes, but he can see your eyes
because he is hidden behind you. Your eyes are just in front of him. He is you; he can see your eyes. But
you cannot see him through the eyes. He is hidden behind all your senses so he can see your senses.

If you go deep into meditation you can see the inner core of your body, the inner wall. This has been a

strange happening, because in the West it is only three hundred years since medical science came to know
about the inner structure of the body -- and that too by dissection. By cutting the body, analyzing the body,
dissecting the body, Western medical science came to know about the inner structure of it.

But for the East it has been a strange phenomenon. Yogis and tantrikas have always known it, and they

never dissected a single body. They know how many NADIS, how many nerves there are. They have
completely determined how the whole inner body functions -- but they never dissected a body, they were
not surgeons. How did they come to know about it? They came to know it through a totally different way.
They became so meditatively silent within that in that silence they became detached from the body. They
became just an awareness inside. Then they started to see what is inside.

You know your body only from the outside. This is peculiar because you live inside and yet you have

not observed it from the inside. It is as if you live in a house, and you go around and around it never coming
to know it from within -- how it looks from within. Your body has two surfaces. There is the outer surface
which we are aware of because we can see it through the eyes, touch it with the hands. Then there is the
inner surface of the body for which the eyes and the hands cannot be used.

If you can simply become alert and silent, detached, you will come to know the inner surface. Then you

can see your eyes, and then you can hear your ears, and then you can touch your hands, and then you can
know your body. But your body cannot know you.
This is what the sutra says:

WHAT SIGHT FAILS TO SEE, BUT WHAT SEES SIGHT -- KNOW THOU THAT ALONE AS BRAHMAN,
AND NOT THIS THAT PEOPLE WORSHIP HERE.

Except for your body, there is no temple to enter and search in. There is no mosque and no church where

God abides -- he abides in you. If you can enter and fall back upon your center of consciousness, know that
alone to be the Brahman -- to be the ultimate, to be the real, to be the existence, and do not fall a victim to
all that which is worshipped by people here.

People go on worshipping their own imaginations, people go on worshipping their own creations. Then

fashions change and when fashions change, imagination changes. Then you have to create new idols, new
images, new places of worship. Hence, so many religions on the earth; otherwise, it is absurd. How can
there be so many religions? If truth is one how can there be so many religions? Science is one but why is
religion not one? Why is science not Christian science, Hindu science, Mohammedan science? It is not
possible because science deals with fact. And if you deal with fact, then there can be only one science
because fact is not a private thing. If you come upon a fact, then everyone has to accept it; there is no other

way. You cannot go on denying it. And if you deny science, it will be at your own loss. If physics comes to
know a law, then you cannot say, "I am an Indian and I cannot believe a man who is discovering a law in
England. How can I follow an Englishman or a Chinese? We are of different nations; our cultures are
different." You cannot say that. A physical law is a physical law. It makes no difference who discovers it.
Once discovered it is universal.

Science is one, but why is religion not one? If it is also the ultimate law it must be one -- more one than

science because science deals only with outer facts and religion deals with the inner truth. Why should it be
so? There are three hundred religions -- how is it possible?

These three hundred religions exist because of fiction, dream, not because of truth. They can exist

because they are your creations, not your realizations. You create your own mode of worship, you create
your own temple. Your religions are artistic creations, not scientific realizations -- artistic creations! You
paint your own religion and you like your paintings and you cannot think that any other's painting is better
than your own. You like it, so you go on fighting that your painting is supreme; no one else can paint such a
thing. All else is secondary. You can tolerate others' paintings if you are a good man. You can tolerate
others with a patronizing attitude thinking, "They are a little stupid, foolish. Just wait. They will come to the
right thing."

Christians go on waiting that Hindus will come to their senses and they will become Christians. Hindus

go on waiting for these foolish Christians thinking that some day or other they will be converted, they will
become Hindus. How can they escape the truth? And Jainas go on thinking that all the followers of Krishna
and Christ are following untrue masters. How can they follow a false master for so long? Some day or other
they will come to the right master, Mahavira. They will follow him. Everyone goes on thinking inside that
he is right and everyone else is wrong.

This happens because for the masses religion is imagination. They have their own imaginations; they

have painted their own world. It is artistic. Nothing -- is wrong with it. You decorate your house in your
own way; it is good. Who is there to say that it is wrong? It is no one's right. You decorate your house in
your own way but you do not fight about decoration. You do not say, "My decoration is the ultimate truth."
Everyone else is allowed to decorate his house in his own way.

You are doing the same thing with your mind. You decorate it with your own images, worship, prayer,

your own Bibles, your own Gitas. You go on decorating your inner world and then you become part of it,
you live in it. This is illusory.

The sutra says: That alone is Brahman which you realize when you transcend the senses, when you go

behind the senses, when you can see the eyes, when you can hear the ears, when you can touch the hand
from within.

THAT ALONE KNOW AS BRAHMAN, AND NOT THIS THAT PEOPLE WORSHIP HERE. WHAT HEARING
FAILS TO HEAR, BUT WHAT HEARS HEARING -- KNOW THOU THAT ALONE AS BRAHMAN, AND NOT
THIS THAT PEOPLE WORSHIP HERE. WHAT PRANA DOES NOT REVEAL, BUT WHAT REVEALS
PRANA -- KNOW THOU THAT ALONE AS BRAHMAN, AND NOT THIS THAT PEOPLE WORSHIP HERE.

All the temples are false, all the mosques are false, all the churches are false. I am not condemning

them; I am simply stating a fact -- because they are creations of the imagination. I do not say destroy them, I
say enjoy them -- but do not think that this enjoyment is leading you toward the ultimate. Enjoy the
creations. It is a good game; nothing is wrong with it. People are going to the movies, people are going to
dancehalls. Why should they not be allowed to enjoy a religious fantasy? In their temples, in their mosques,
in their GURUDWARAS, they should be allowed -- they are free! And it is better to have a religious
fantasy than not to have -- anything. But do not think that you are realizing the Brahman there; you cannot.
He is not there, so you cannot do anything. You can enjoy yourself. -- You can enjoy your fantasy, your
dream world.

If this is understood, then temples can exist. They are beautiful, artistic creations but do not be lost in

them. Go there, but do not be lost there. Go on remembering that whatsoever is worshipped by the people is
not the real Brahman, because the real Brahman is hidden in the worshipper. This is the emphasis. When I
worship, I am there and the object of worship is there. Where is Brahman? -- in the object of worship or in
the worshipper? The emphasis of the Upanishads is: it is in the worshipper, not in the object of worship. The
object of worship is secondary; it is created by the worshipper. The value of what you feel there is projected
by you; it is given by you. It is a gift to the object from you.

You can put a round rock in your house and you can worship it as Shiva -- it is SHIVALINGA. And the

rock was lying in the street or just on a riverbed for millions of years. No one worshipped it; no one knew
that this is Shiva. The river never cared; the animals passed by it, they never looked at it. And suddenly you
transform the rock. Suddenly the rock becomes an object of worship, sacred, and now no one can touch it.
And people were walking over it. Their feet touched it for centuries. Now suddenly you create a pedestal.
You put the rock there. You say that this is Shivalinga, that this is the symbol of the god Shiva, and then
you worship and you feel very good.

Nothing is bad about it. The rock is beautiful and if you enjoy, then enjoy. But remember, the rock is

simply a rock and Shiva is your creation. You have projected him; you have made that rock into a Shiva.
The god is created by you; the rock is not even aware. And if the rock could see you it would laugh: "This
man has gone mad. What are you doing worshipping me?" The worshipper -- creates the worshipped, the
devotee creates the god.

The Upanishads say that there you will not find the real, you will only find the imagined. Move, rather,

into the worshipper; penetrate into the worshipper. Forget the objects of worship and just try to know who is
this worshipper -- who is this who is worshipping? Who is this who is praying? Who is this who is going to
the temple? And if you can find out who this is who worships, you have found the Brahman.

I have heard that once it happened that a Zen master, Huang Po, was delivering a sermon. Suddenly a

man stood up. The man said, "I have been listening and listening for years, and everyone says 'Know
thyself,' but I don't follow the meaning. What do you mean by knowing thyself? Please try to explain it to
me in simple terms. I am not a very learned man; I do not know the jargon. Simply state the thing. What do
you mean by 'Know thyself'?"

Huang Po said, "If you cannot follow the jargon, then I will not use language." He said to the people

who were listening, "Make way, so that I can reach that man." Huang Po came down from his rostrum and
walked to the man. The man became a little afraid, uneasy, because he never thought there was any need to
come so near. Is this man going to attack? And Huang Po looked very aggressive -- he was a man like a
lion. So the man became afraid, and others also became uneasy about what was going to happen. And they
knew about Huang Po. Sometimes he had slapped, sometimes he had thrown an inquirer out of the door, and
sometimes he had beaten.... So what is going to happen? There was silence, dead silence; no one was
breathing.

Then Huang Po came near. He took the collar of that man in his hand, and he said, "Close your eyes."

So the man, just out of fear, closed his eyes. There was total silence. The man closed his eyes, and then
Huang Po said, "Now KNOW who is there." So the man stood there, the whole hall silent, no one was
breathing, and Huang Po just stood there....

The man closed his eyes. He must really have been a simple, innocent man. He closed his eyes and he

tried to find out who he is. He searched and searched and searched, and time went on.

Then Huang Po asked him, "Now open your eyes and tell me who you are."
The man opened his eyes. His eyes were totally different; the quality had changed. The man began

smiling, then he bowed down to touch the feet of Huang Po and he said, "I never thought you would throw
me upon myself, but I was thrown. Now do not ask me because I cannot say. I am not a learned man. But
now I will never ask who I am. I have known it."

The Upanishads are trying to throw you to yourself. Forget the object of worship... just move within.

And how can you move within? It is easy to forget the object of worship, but it is difficult to move within
because there are objects still in the mind which go on clinging around you. Whenever you close your eyes,
there is a world of imagination around you: dreams go on floating, images come up, thoughts move in a
procession. Again you are in a world. The world of things is no more there, but the world of thoughts is
there. Unless this world of thoughts also ceases, you cannot know the worshipper.

And how will it cease if you go on cooperating with it, go on creating it? You cannot destroy the world

of things because you never created it. Remember, -- you cannot destroy the world of things. How can you
destroy the hills, the earth, the moon, the stars? You cannot destroy them because you never created them!
But you can destroy the world of thoughts because you are the sole creator there. No one else has helped
you. You alone have done the whole work.

Thoughts exist because you cooperate with them. Do not cooperate -- this is the only technique. Be

indifferent. Just look at them without loving them, without hating them, without condemning them, without
appreciating them, without saying they are good, without saying they are bad. Do not say anything; do not

take any attitude. Just be indifferent, an onlooker.

The clouds are floating in the sky. You sit under a tree and you just see -- the clouds floating; you do

not take any attitude. You do not say, "Why are these clouds floating? They should not," or "They should."
You do not take any attitude. You just simply become an observer, and you look at the clouds passing in the
sky.

In the same way look at the thoughts passing in the inner sky. Do not take any attitude. The moment you

take an attitude you have started cooperating. The clouds in the outside sky will not disappear if you do not
take any attitude, but the clouds in the inner sky WILL disappear. They only exist because of you. If you are
indifferent, they simply go. They are invitees. You may know it or you may not know it -- they are guests
you have invited before.

It has been very long ago, and you have forgotten that you have invited them. It may have been in some

other life that you invited them. But nothing happens to your inner world uninvited. Each thought has been
invited, and now it comes and still you give energy to it. You can give energy in two ways. If you are
against it you will also give energy. In both ways the thought will feed upon it.

There is only one way to be disconnected, and that is to be indifferent. Buddha has called it UPEKSHA.

He said if you are indifferent to the process of thoughts, they will disappear.

Insist on being indifferent. Do not take any attitude, do not choose. Just remain a witness, and they will

disappear. And when they disappear, suddenly the worshipper is revealed: suddenly you are revealed to
yourself. That revelation alone is Brahman, and NOT THIS THAT PEOPLE WORSHIP HERE.

The Supreme Doctrine

Chapter #7

Chapter title: Meditation and the Inner Eye

11 July 1973 pm in Mt Abu Meditation Camp

Archive code: 7307115

ShortTitle: DOCTRN07

Audio:

Yes

Video:

No

Length: 105 mins

The first question:

BELOVED OSHO,
IN THE MORNING YOU SAID THAT THE BRAHMAN IS NOT TO BE FOUND THROUGH THE
WORSHIPPED, BUT IN THE WORSHIPPER HIMSELF. BUT THE SADGURUS -- THE SPIRITUAL
MASTERS -- HAVE ALWAYS BEEN WORSHIPPED BY THEIR DISCIPLES AS GOD. PLEASE EXPLAIN
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS.

The masters have been worshipped as God, but this is only the beginning, not the end. The master is

really a master if he makes his disciples ultimately free from all worship. But in the beginning it will not be
so because in the beginning the relationship between the master and disciple is a love relationship, it is
passionate. And whenever you are in love, the other appears to be divine.

Even in ordinary love the beloved appears to be divine. And the relationship between a disciple and a

master is a very deep love relationship. Really, you fall in love with the master and nothing is wrong in that.
And when you fall in love with the master you start worshipping. But the master takes it only as a game. If
he is also interested in it and takes it seriously or significantly, then he is not a master at all. To him it is just
a game -- but a good game, because it can help the disciple.

How will it help the disciple? The more the disciple worships the master, the nearer he will come to

him, the more intimate he will become, the more he will be surrendered, receptive, passive. And the more he
is passive, receptive, surrendered, the more he can understand what the master is trying to do. And when the
intimacy comes to the last point, when only an inch separates, when just a minute separation remains, when
the intimacy has become so deep that now the master can lead the disciple toward himself, then the master
can help the disciple to become free from him.

In the beginning it is impossible. You will not understand if the master starts trying to free you from

himself -- you will not be able to understand. In the beginning you need someone to lean upon, in the
beginning you need someone to depend upon; in the beginning you need someone to whom you can be a
total slave. This is an inner need. And you cannot be made a master from the very beginning; the beginning
will be a sort of spiritual dependence.

But if the master also feels satisfied that you are depending on him, then he is not a master. He is

harmful, he is dangerous; he doesn't know anything at all. If he also feels gratified, then this dependence is
mutual. You depend on him, he depends on you. And if the master depends on you in any way, he cannot be
of any help. But if he rejects you from the very beginning there will be no intimacy. If there is no intimacy,
the final step cannot be taken.

When you trust your master so much that if he says, "Leave me," you can leave him, only then will you

be able to be freed. If you can trust your master so much that if the master says, "Kill me," and you can kill
him, only then will you be able to be freed -- not before that. And this has to be brought about by and by. It
is a long process. Sometimes the whole life, and sometimes many lives, the master goes on working with the
disciple.

The disciple is not aware, he doesn't know; he moves in darkness. The master is leading him toward the

point where the disciple will not be a disciple but will become a master in his own right. When you have
become a master, when this need to depend has completely disappeared, when you can exist alone, when
you can be alone and there is no pain, no suffering, no anguish, when you can be alone and in ecstasy, only
then are you free.

Really, when a disciple happens to be near a master, the master appears to be God. For the disciple this

is a fact because such love flows from the master, such high vibrations flow through the master. He
becomes a source and just by his presence you are uplifted. Just by being in touch you are different. Just by
being near him you vibrate in a different dimension altogether.

So if the master appears to be God it is a fact for the disciple and nothing is wrong in it. The master is

God. It is only wrong when the disciple is not aware that he himself is also God. He is not wrong about the
master, he is wrong about HIMSELF. And if the master says, "I am not God," he is closing the very
possibility to say to the disciple someday, "You are God also." The master will not say it because this has to
be revealed.

Even if the disciple has come to feel that the master is God, it is a great step. Now the second step will

be that the disciple has come to feel he himself is God. When the disciple has come to feel that he himself is
God, then the whole existence will become godly. Then there is no need to even say that the master is God.
It is irrelevant. The whole existence is God so what is the use of calling the master a god? But in the
beginning it is significant.

Remember, for the disciple truth has to be revealed in many steps; it cannot be revealed totally because

you will not be capable of bearing it. You will not be capable of bearing it. It will be too destructive. It has
to be revealed slowly, part by part. Only that much can be revealed to you which you can absorb, which can
become your blood, your bones, your heart, which will not prove destructive.

Hence, many things will be said later on. The master will go on saying things. The more you become

capable, the more he will say. And when really you have become so capable that now you can be
independent, the last thing the master will say is, "I am a bondage to you. Now leave this last fetter; now
leave this last slavery."

When Zarathustra was going away from his disciples, moving to the hills to disappear forever, he said to

his disciples, "Now the last message, and the last message is this: Beware of me; I am dangerous. You may
become dependent on me and my whole effort is to make you independent. You may take my word as truth
and my whole effort is to tell you that no word can be truth. Now beware of me."

The last message of any real master will be, "Beware of me" -- but this cannot be said in the beginning.

So masters have allowed their disciples to worship them. They must have been laughing within because
they know what game is going on. But the disciple is very serious; he thinks what he is doing is something

very significant. But the master is just playing. It is just like when you are playing with your children, with
their toys, and you also pretend to be serious: the master is really amidst children. They live on such
different levels that if the master has to do something to be of any meaning he has to speak the language of
the children. By and by he will drag the children toward a different world of a different language. This is
going to be a long process.

But the Upanishads are saying the last; they are the essence of all religion. Really, they are not for the

beginners, they are for those who have left the beginning far behind. Really, they are for those who have
been struggling for a long time -- meditating, searching, inquiring. Only then can the Upanishads be helpful.
I am speaking on the Upanishads because you are meditating. Through your meditation you may have a
glimpse which will make the Upanishads easy to understand. But if you are not meditating then the
Upanishads will just pass over your head, they will not mean anything. Only with a meditative heart will
you be able to make a contact with the message.

The message of the Upanishads is the most simple but the most supreme, the highest. The language used

is very simple, the simplest possible, but the content -- that which is said through that language -- is the last
word. It cannot be improved upon. Nothing can be said which the Upanishads have not said already. If even
one Upanishad can be saved and all other religious scriptures are burnt, nothing will be lost because all the
seeds are there. Sow these seeds and you can reap the whole human religiousness through them. But you
will be able only if you are meditating deeply, moving side by side into the heart, the innermost center, and
not simply making an intellectual effort to understand.

Someone has said that the Upanishad seems repetitive; it goes on saying the same thing about this sense

and that sense -- and again about eyes and about ears. Why does it go on repeating? Is there some
significance in it? Yes, there is. It is because the master is speaking to children. Your memory cannot be
depended upon so the truth has to be repeated constantly and still it is only a hope that it may be understood.

Buddha goes on repeating the same thing again and again. The Upanishads go on repeating the same

thing again and again. They are talking to children -- to children who are not attentive. They may miss many
times. It is hoped that sometimes their attention may be caught, so things have to be repeated. You are not
alert, that is why; otherwise the ultimate can be expressed even in a single word. And that too is too much. It
can be expressed through silence. Not even a single word is needed to express it. But then you will not
understand silence.

Someone came to a Zen mystic, Rinzai, and he asked, "Tell me only that which is very essential,

because I am in a hurry. I am a big official in the government and I have no time. I was just passing by your
hermitage and I thought it would be good to go in and inquire. This has been on my mind for a long time. So
tell me in essence, what do you think religion is basically, foundationally?"

Rinzai remained silent. The great official felt uneasy. He said, "Have you heard me or not? You seem to

be deaf. I am asking you to give me a key word about religion."
Rinzai said, "I have given it. Now you can go."
The official said, "But I have not heard."

Rinzai said, "That which can be heard will not be essential. I have given you the key; silence is the key.

Now you go. You are in a hurry."

But now the officer started to be interested. This man looked interesting. He said, "Please elaborate a

little more. It is too short, it is too condensed, it is too seedlike. A little elaboration will be helpful."

Rinzai said, "But that will be a repetition because all that can be said I have said. Now you are forcing

me to repeat."

The officer said, "Let it be a repetition, but elaborate a little."
So Rinzai said, "DHYANA -- meditation." It is again the same because meditation means silence. What

else can it mean? Now it is a word. Before it was simple silence -- that was more real. Now it is a word --
meditation.

The man said, "It is still a little difficult for me. I am a worldly man. Explain it to me; it is still a puzzle."
Rinzai said, "Now if I elaborate more, it will be false. The truth was given at first; now it is just a

repetition in words. Already it has become half false, but now if I elaborate more it will be totally false. So
do not force me to commit a sin. Now you can go. You are in a hurry."

The Upanishads go on repeating FOR YOU because your attention is not reliable. Buddha had a very

tedious way: he would repeat every sentence thrice -- but only because of compassion. You may not have

heard once, you may not have heard twice. The hope is that you may hear it the third time.

Jesus goes on using parables. I myself go on using parables, anecdotes, stories. Not that they are

essential -- they are a sheer wastage of time -- but I use them just for you because children can understand
stories better than anything else. It is hoped that if nothing is understood, at least the stories will be carried
in the mind and just around the story some flavor of the real thing may also be carried unconsciously. But if
you will not forget the story, if you can remember the story, then just by association something else may
also be carried in remembrance. Jesus used so many parables because talking to children no other way is
possible. Buddha goes on telling stories....

It is because of you that the Upanishads repeat. There is no significance other than that. It can be said in

a single sentence that senses will not lead to the ultimate but the Upanishads go on saying that sight will not
lead to it, hearing will not lead to it, the hands will not lead to it.

A single thing has to be repeated because of you and still you do not understand; that is the mystery.

You hear it -- and not only do you hear it, you feel that it is a repetition. But no understanding happens yet.
Try to understand; do not try to analyze. Do not try to think about the mind of the rishi -- why he is
repeating. Think about your own mind, why it is repeating. And be alert so that rishis won't need to repeat.

I have heard, once it happened that one Zen priest gave his first sermon, and the next week he again

repeated the same sermon and the third week also he repeated the same sermon word for word. The
congregation became uneasy; it was too much. Religious sermons are by themselves boring but then he
repeated the second time, he repeated the third time, exactly the same thing in exactly the same words. So
the congregation thought that something had to be done.

A spokesman was appointed. He went to the priest and said, "What is the matter? Do you have only one

sermon to preach?"
The priest said, "No, I have quite a few."

Then the spokesman said, "Then why have you been repeating the same sermon three times? We are fed

up with it."

The priest said, "But you have not done anything about it yet. Unless you do something about it, I

cannot go to the second. I have got quite a few but what have you done about the first? I have been
preaching it three times -- what have you done about it? You have not done anything. And unless you do
something about the first, I cannot move to the second."

It is said that the congregation, by and by, stopped coming. And it is said that the priest went on

preaching the same sermon. Even to the vacant temple, when there was no one, he would preach the same
sermon. Then people stopped coming that way because sometimes, just passing by the temple, they would
hear the same sermon being taught. Then people started to feel afraid, scared of the man. They would not
meet him in the street or anywhere. If they saw him they would just avoid him because he would stop and
ask, "Have you done anything about the sermon?" He became like a haunting phenomenon around the
village.

That is why the Upanishads go on repeating -- because you have not done anything about the first thing.

You have not done anything about the first, so they repeat a second time, a third time. There are one
hundred and eight Upanishads. They do not say anything new; they go on repeating the same thing again
and again. One Upanishad is repeated one hundred and eight times. But still, nothing has been done about it.
You need more Upanishads.

Do not think about the mind of the master. Think about your own mind.

The second question:

BELOVED OSHO,
YOU SAID THAT THROUGH CHAOTIC BREATHING YOU WANT TO DESTROY OUR OLD WRONG
PATTERNS -- TO REBUILD US IN A NEW DIMENSION. PLEASE EXPLAIN HOW THIS REBUILDING IN A
NEW DIMENSION HAPPENS AFTER THE OLD HAS BEEN DESTROYED.

You have misunderstood me. The chaotic method is to destroy the old patterns, not to create a new one.

It is NOT to create a pattern at all. Just the old pattern has to be destroyed. The method, all meditative
methods, just destroy your conditioning without conditioning you in any way; otherwise there will simply

be a change of fetters, a change of prisons. The new prison may look a little better but it is still a prison.

The unconditioned mind is the end -- a mind which has no pattern around it. The old pattern has to be

destroyed, and the new is not to be created because the new will become the old again. Nothing has to be
created in its place; you are to be left alone without a pattern. But you have lived so long in patterns that you
cannot conceive of how you can live without a pattern. How can you live without conditioning? How can
you live without a discipline? How can you live without fetters? You have lived so long in slavery, in
conditioning, that you cannot conceive of what freedom is. But you can live; really, only then will you live.

A conditioned mind is not alive. For instance, people come to me and they say, "You do not give us any

discipline: what to eat, what not to eat, what to do, what not to do. You simply give us meditation and let us
go into chaos. You do not give us something to live by. You just push us into chaos without any discipline."

I do not give you any discipline because only those who are enemies to you can give you disciplines. I

give you awareness, not discipline. And your awareness will give you spontaneous light about what to do
and what not to do. And who can decide beforehand? And what is the need to decide it beforehand? When
the moment arises, when the situation is there, you will be alert enough to do whatsoever happens to you --
what is felt by your awareness itself to be done.

If you are aware you do not need any discipline. Only people who are fast asleep need discipline

because they do not know what to do. They need a pattern to follow. Their whole life becomes a misery
because no pattern can be helpful in a changing life. Every pattern will become a prison because life is
constantly changing. This moment one act may be good but the next moment it may become bad because
the situation has changed. And you go on following a dead pattern; you never fit anywhere.

Look at your own lives: everyone is a misfit. Everyone is unfit; no one fits anywhere. And the reason? --

the pattern, the discipline, the conditioning. You carry it everywhere. Whatsoever the situation, you have a
constant pattern around you. You will never fit. Life is changing, life is a flux; it is riverlike, it is never the
same again. Not for a single moment is life the same. It goes on changing and you have a fixed pattern
which doesn't change. You will be a misfit.

Everywhere in the world, human beings have become misfits. And when you feel that you are a misfit,

you feel discarded, rejected -- as if life is against you. Quite the reverse is the case: your conditioning is
against life. Only an unconditioned mind can respond to the changing life -- because he has no pattern. Life
creates a situation: he is alert; he behaves in a way which happens in that moment. That type of man will
never regret; you will always regret. That type of man will never repent; you will always repent --
whatsoever you do.

You love a girl: now the alternatives are whether to marry her or not. Whatsoever you do, you will

repent. If you marry her, then for the whole of your life you will think the other alternative would have been
better. If you do not marry, the same thing will happen: you will think that the other alternative was better.
You have not been alert. Only an alert person can respond totally.

You can respond only in parts, fragments, and while you are responding it is a fragmentary response.

And there are other parts within you which are against it. Sooner or later they will take revenge. They will
say, "We were saying not to do this." What does repentance mean? Repentance means you are divided. You
do a thing and at that very moment something in you is against it. That part is watching you and that part is
saying, "Do not do it! This is wrong." And another part goes on saying, "This is right. Do it!" And you do it.

You will not fit because you can fit only when you are fluxlike, changing. A fixed entity cannot fit in a

riverlike existence. You must be fluid. Only when you are liquid, fluid, flowing, changing, alert, aware, will
you not repent. You will never feel guilty; you will never feel that something was better than what you did.
Nothing can be better because you responded totally. That was all that could have been. Nothing else was
possible.

My meditation technique is not to give you a new pattern; it is simply to drop the old pattern, to destroy

it and leave you completely free without any imprisonment around you -- without any prison. Of course,
you will feel difficulty because the prison was also a shelter. Now there will be rains and there will be no
shelter, and the wind will come and there will be no shelter, and the sun will be there, hot and burning, and
there will be no shelter, and you would like to hide somewhere. Your eyes have become so accustomed to
darkness that in the light you will feel uneasy. But this is what will make you free. You will have to get the
feel of the new life under the open skies. Once you know the freedom and the beauty of it, once you have
become aware, once you have come out of the prison, the old habit, you will not ask for any pattern or any
discipline.

And this doesn't mean that your life will become a chaos -- no! Your life will be the only ordered life

possible. The life that you are leading is a chaos. It only seems to be ordered on the surface. Behind it,
underneath, there is disorder and turmoil. Only on the surface have you created the appearance of order.
Look within yourself: there is disorder. Ordered life will be disordered; disciplined life will be chaotic
within. This looks paradoxical but this is so, this is the truth. Only an alert life will have an order -- not
forced but spontaneous, alive. The order will go on changing with life. It must.

A spontaneous life is just like your eyes. Do you know that your eyes go on changing continuously?

And when they stop changing, then you need some technical help. When I am looking at you and you are
ten feet away from me, my eyes have one kind of focus. When I start looking at the hills which are far away,
my eyes immediately change. The lenses of the eyes change immediately. Then only can I see the hills.
When I look at the moon, my eyes change immediately.

You come into the house, it is dark; your eyes change. You come out of the house, it is light; your eyes

change. And when your eyes become fixed, they are ill. They must be fluxlike; only then are you capable of
seeing. The more fluxlike the eyes, the more liquid they are, without any pattern, the more they are just
changing with the situation, then the more alert your consciousness will be.

Meditation will give you an inner eye which will be constantly changing, constantly aware of the new

situation, constantly responding. But the response will come from your total being, not from a pattern. The
response will come from YOU, not from a conditioning.

Now, whatsoever you do, howsoever you react, it comes from your conditioning. If you have been born

in a Jaina family, then just looking at nonvegetarian food you feel revolted, you feel a nausea. That nausea
is not coming from you; that nausea is coming from the conditioning. It never comes to a Mohammedan; it
never comes to a Christian. It is not that you are more nonviolent and they are violent: it is just a
conditioning from the childhood. And that conditioning starts functioning the moment you see meat.

Even the word meat and you will feel a subtle nausea. Just a word and the nausea will be felt. Is it

coming from you? If it is coming from you, then your whole life will be a life of love. But it is not. You are
as cruel as anybody else. The Jaina is as cruel as the Mohammedan and sometimes even more. He has to be
more cruel because he cannot express his violence through food. It has to be expressed from somewhere
else.

When you eat, you express your violence. If you eat meat, your violence moves through food -- it is

released. This is a common observation: people who are nonvegetarians are more loving than the
vegetarians -- more loving, more kind than the vegetarians. Why? This should not be so. Their violence is
released through food.

In your body, your teeth are the most violent part. Violent people eat more food than nonviolent people.

Just crushing the food with the teeth gives release to violence, anger and hate. Persons who are eating meat
and other such things have a natural outlet for their violence. I am not saying go and eat meat but if you do
not eat meat, if you do not eat nonvegetarian foods simply by conditioning, do not think that you have
become loving and nonviolent. Your violence will find other ways, more subtle ways. Your relationships
will become more cruel, poisoned.

But if you are really not behaving according to a pattern; if this is because love has arisen in your heart;

if you have become alert to the cruelty of eating animal food; if you have become alert by yourself; if not by
any tradition, not by birth, not by any teaching, not by any scriptures, but by your own meditative
experience you have become alert, if you have become alert that it is stupid, that to kill an animal for food is
stupid, idiotic; if you have become alert of this fact by your own meditation -- then it is totally different.
Then your whole life will be nonviolent and loving. Then you will not just be obsessed with food but you
will know it is an alive phenomenon and you will not be mad after any fixed rules. There will be no fixed
rules, really; there will be only a constantly alive awareness.

So I am not going to create a new pattern for you. I am a destroyer. I am not going to create anything,

really. I am just going to destroy, because there is no need to create. You are already there behind the
structure. If the structure is destroyed, you will be freed. If the structure which binds you is no more there,
you will be there. You are not to be created; you are already there. Only the walls of the prison have to be
destroyed and you will be under the open sky.

You have misunderstood me. I told you this chaotic meditation is to destroy your conditioning, your

slavery, your mind, your ego -- in a deep sense, YOU. It has to destroy and then the new will be born. I am
not saying I will create it. No one can create it. And there is no need: it is already the case. It is there. Only
the shell has to be broken and it will come out.

All religion is destructive in this sense. The society is constructive, religion is destructive. Society

constructs the conditioning. Society makes you a Hindu or a Christian or a Jaina. Society never allows you
to be yourself. It gives you a pattern, because society is an organization. The society wants you to fit into
that organization according to its own rules. The society doesn't want YOU; the society only wants your
efficiency. You are not the point, you are not the target. You must behave like a mechanical thing. The more
mechanical you are, the more society will appreciate you because you will be less dangerous.

No machine can be dangerous. It never goes out of the way: it never disobeys, it never rebels, it is not

revolutionary. No machine is revolutionary; it cannot be. All machines are orthodox: they obey, they follow.
Society tries to change you into a mechanical thing. Then you are more efficient, less dangerous, reliable,
responsible. And there is no fear, no danger; you can be relied upon.

The society creates a mechanical device around you: that is the conditioning. And it allows you only

certain outlets and closes certain things completely. It chooses some fragments from you and approves
them, then rejects all else. It says that only a part of you is good and the other parts are bad, so deny those
parts. Society doesn't accept you as a whole, as a unity; it accepts only certain parts. Hence, the
conditioning.

Religion is always destructive; in a way, religion is always antisocial. But society is very cunning. It

tries to convert religion also into its managerial system. It wants to make religion also a part of it.

Jesus is rebellious, the church is not. Jesus is against society -- he has to be, because he is trying to

destroy the mechanical part and he is trying to free your spontaneity. He is bound to be against the society;
the society will crucify him. But just by crucifying him you cannot destroy Jesus. Really, if you want to
destroy Jesus, crucifixion will be of no help. You will have to organize a church around Jesus; only then
will he be destroyed.

It is said that once it happened that the devil was very much disturbed because one man had achieved

enlightenment on earth. He called his advisers and he asked them, "What to do now? One man has again
achieved truth, he has become enlightened, and our whole profession is now in danger. What to do? How to
prevent people from going to this man?"

The oldest follower of the devil said, "Do not be disturbed. We should go and we should organize a

church around him. Do not worry. Then the church will become the prevention, then people will not be able
to come to him directly. The church will be in between, and whatsoever he says will not be heard by the
people directly. The church will first interpret it, and through interpretation you can destroy anything."

Truth can be destroyed most easily if you order it, organize it. When religion becomes a sect, it becomes

a part of society. Whenever religion is alive and not a sect, it is against society. Jesus is against society,
Mahavira is against society, Buddha is against society. But Buddhism, Jainism, Christianity, they are all
parts of society. They are religions no more. Religion has to be rebellious. And this is the rebellion: religion
tries to destroy the mechanicalness because the mechanicalness is your hell. Spontaneity is your heaven;
mechanicalness is your hell.

I am not going to give you any new pattern -- neither new nor old. I am simply going to destroy the

pattern and leave you alone to live without a pattern. A life without a pattern is a religious life. A life
without any forced order is a religious life. A life without any discipline, but with inner awareness, is a
religious life.

The last question:

BELOVED OSHO,
THE KENOPANISHAD TOLD US IN THE BEGINNING THAT NOTHING IS TO BE DENIED AND THAT
THERE SHOULD BE TOTAL ACCEPTANCE. BUT IN THE MORNING YOU SAID THAT PRAYER, IDOL
WORSHIP, TEMPLES, CHURCHES, ARE ALL BASED ON FALSITIES -- ON MENTAL PROJECTION. THIS
SEEMS TO BE A DENIAL.

It is not. It is simply stating a fact. To say that a dream is a dream is not to deny it. To say that a

projection is a projection is not to deny it. To say that a false thing is a false thing is just to state a fact. It is
not to deny it. Total acceptance doesn't mean that the falsity has to be stated as true, that the dream has to be
called reality.

Total acceptance means that whatsoever is, is accepted. If the worshipper's mind is projecting deities,

divine beings, this has to be accepted. It is a fact that worshippers have been doing that. And you are not

told to go and try to destroy their projections; you are not told to go and destroy their idols and their
temples. If you understand, the very understanding will change you. You will not create those projections.
And if you want to create them, then you will know that these are projections and you can enjoy them as
such.

It is reported of Naropa, one of the greatest Tibetan mystics ever born.... He was a very absurd

personality. I say "absurd" because he would do things no one would expect of a master. He was found in a
pub drinking.

Someone said, "Naropa, what are you doing? You are enlightened, you have achieved the goal, and you

are drinking?"

Naropa said, "This is a game. And when it is a game, I do not care this way or that. Once I have come to

know that I am the eternal within, why be afraid of this alcohol? Why be afraid?"

I say "absurd personality" -- but he is saying that this is alcohol and that whatsoever is created by

alcohol is a dream. He is not saying this is reality; he is saying this is a dream. He said, "I am not obsessed
for or against. It happened that a friend invited me and I didn't want to say no. A friend invited me. For him
this is real, for me this is a dream. But this is a dream for me, not for him. Why be bothered? It will be
difficult for him."

I will tell you something else which will be nearer the point -- less absurd.
It happened that Kabir's family became very much disturbed. The family was poor and whosoever

would come to Kabir's house, Kabir would invite him for food. And at least two hundred people would
come every day for his DARSHAN, to see him. And he would go on inviting everyone for food.

Then his son Kamaal said one night, "Stop all this! We are poor. We have been begging, we have

borrowed; now no one is going to give anything. What are you doing? You will reduce us to being thieves."

He was very angry. But Kabir laughed and said, "Why didn't you think of it before? Be a thief! This is a

good idea!"

But Kamaal was also his son, Kabir's son, so he looked at him: Kabir, a mystic, saying this -- to be a

thief? He must not be in his senses, or he does not understand what he is saying. But Kamaal said, "Okay, if
you say so, then I will go. I will steal but you will have to come with me." Kamaal was thinking that now
Kabir would come to his senses. Kabir going to steal...?
Kabir stood up and said, "Okay, I am coming."

Kamaal carried the whole thing to the very extreme. He was thinking that somewhere at the last moment

Kabir would laugh and say, "I was just joking." But no! Kamaal entered a house, pulled out some things
from the owner's treasure, brought them out, and Kabir was ready, waiting there. This was the last point;
now there was no further possibility to change things. Now Kamaal asked, "What is to be done? Shall we
take these things to the house?"

Kabir said, "Okay, but first you must go back, awaken the people of that house, and tell them."

Kamaal asked, "What way of stealing is this?"

Kabir said, "At least they should be told; otherwise they will be unnecessarily worried."
Those who follow Kabir have stopped narrating this story in their books because it is absurd. Kabir

approving stealing? But what was the matter? In the morning Kamaal asked, "What is the matter now? Tell
me the whole thing. You are in favor of stealing?"

Kabir said, "Everything belongs to God. No one else is the owner."
Look at this mind. For this mind everything is acceptable. There is total acceptance. Even stealing is

accepted. But he says, "Go and tell the people so that they are not unnecessarily worried."

Kamaal said to him, "But they will think we are thieves."

Kabir said, "They are right. We are!"

Kamaal said, "But then the next day all your respect will go to the dust. No one will honor you."
Kabir said, "That's right! Why should they honor thieves?"

Total acceptance means not denying anything. When you accept, you accept with conditions. You say,

"Okay, I will do this if that is not going to happen. I can steal if God is not going to throw me into hell. I can
steal if there is no sin in it. I can steal if people are not going to dishonor me for it." What people will do has
to be accepted also. TOTAL acceptance is the most alive way of life. But then everything is accepted;
whatsoever happens as a consequence is accepted. There is no denial on any point. That is the last, the

ultimate way of life. Really, that is what a sannyasin should be. What a sannyasin should have is total
acceptance.

But when we say that you can create dreams, we are not denying; we are simply stating a fact. If you

like, you can create dreams. I can help you to create them easily. But remember, they are only dreams.

The problem arises when dream becomes a reality. You can play with your Krishna, you can dance with

him; nothing is wrong with it. Dance in itself is so good. What is wrong about it? You are not doing any
harm to anyone playing with your Krishna, dancing. Dance and play! It will be good for you. But remember
that this is not real. It is a projected thing; you have created it.

If you can remember this, you will play the game but you will never be identified with it. You will go on

being aware that this is a game. A game is a game if you are not identified. If you are identified, it has
become serious, it has become a problem. Now you will be obsessed.

The Supreme Doctrine

Chapter #8

Chapter title: Beginningless Beginning, Endless End

12 July 1973 am in Mt Abu Meditation Camp

Archive code: 7307120

ShortTitle: DOCTRN08

Audio:

Yes

Video:

No

Length: 115 mins

INVOCATION

IF YOU THINK THAT YOU KNOW BRAHMAN WELL, THEN YOU KNOW LITTLE INDEED, FOR THE FORM
OF BRAHMAN THAT YOU SEE AS CONDITIONAL IN LIVING BEINGS AND GODS IS BUT A TRIFLE.
THEREFORE, YOU SHOULD INQUIRE FURTHER ABOUT BRAHMAN.
I DO NOT THINK I KNOW IT WELL, NOR DO I THINK THAT I DO NOT KNOW IT, YET I KNOW TOO. HE
AMONGST US KNOWS IT WHO KNOWS THAT IT IS OTHER THAN THE UNKNOWN AND THE KNOWN.

Knowledge of the ultimate is paradoxical for many reasons. One, the very claim that one knows

becomes a hindrance because the moment you say, "I know," you are not only emphasizing knowledge; you
are also emphasizing 'I' -- and the 'I' is the barrier. The ego is the most subtle barrier, but the strongest. So
when someone says, "I know," the 'I' destroys the knowledge. The 'I' cannot know 'him' because he can be
known only when you have disappeared completely. When you are not, only then he is. This is the first
problem.

It is said that the oracle at Delphi declared Socrates to be the wisest man alive. Those who heard it came

to Socrates and said, "The oracle has declared you to be the most wise man on earth."

Socrates is reported to have laughed and said, "They should have done it earlier -- then I would have

been happy. Now it is too late. Go back and tell the oracle that now I am the most ignorant man on earth.
"When I was younger and full of ego, I was also of the same opinion as the oracle -- that I knew -- because
the 'I' was so strong, it couldn't conceive that the ultimate mystery could not be known. The 'I' was so strong
that I could not think that it was possible for me to be ignorant. Everything that was, was conceived by me
as known, or at least as knowable. But as I grew in knowledge, in understanding, I became more and more

aware of my ignorance. So now go back and tell the oracle that Socrates himself says that he is simply
ignorant, that he doesn't know anything."

The people returned. They said to the oracle, "Socrates refuses to accept what you say, and when he

himself refuses it means something. He says he is the most ignorant man."

The oracle laughed and said, "That is why I have declared him to be the most wise man because only the

most wise can know that he is ignorant."

This is the paradox: those who are ignorant, they always think they know. This is part of ignorance. To

think that you know is part of ignorance; it comes from ignorance. If you are ignorant you will think that
you know much. The more ignorant, the more you will think that you know much. Ignorance is filled with
knowledge. Ignorance, really, lives on knowledge, feeds on knowledge. The wiser you become, the more
aware and understanding, the more you will feel how ignorant you are. And a moment comes when you feel
that you do not know anything. Simply, you are ignorant. All the burden of knowledge is thrown away.
There is no heaviness of knowledge on you. You have become so weightless that you can fly. Knowledge is
a burden.

When you feel that you do not know, ego disappears; it cannot exist. It can exist only with knowledge.

Really, whenever you claim knowledge, it is a claim by the ego: "I know." The emphasis is not on knowing,
the emphasis is on I. When you say, "I do not know," the emphasis is not on ignorance; now the emphasis is
on egolessness. The moment you say, "I do not know," where are you, where is the I? It is no more there.
Now it is simply a word to be used. Now there exists nothing corresponding to it within you. This is the first
problem.

One Christian mystic, Tertullian, has divided humanity into two classes. He said that one part of

humanity is in one class -- that of ignorant knowers; and the other class is of those who are knowing
ignorants. The whole humanity is divided in two. There is an ignorance which knows, and there is a
knowledge which is ignorance. If you claim knowledge you are ignorant. If you accept ignorance you
become knowing, because in ignorance the 'I' cannot exist. And when the 'I' is not there the door is open:
you can look at reality directly. YOU are the only barrier. When you are not there the barrier is not there;
this is the first thing.

The second thing: the ultimate is not only the unknown; the Brahman is not only the unknown -- it is

unknowable also. You can know it, but you cannot know it totally. That creates again a new puzzle. You
can know it but you cannot know it totally because you are just a part to it and the part cannot know the
whole. How can the part know the whole totally? But also the part cannot be totally ignorant either because
it belongs to the whole, it is part of the whole. So it knows in a way, it feels in a way, it understands in a
way, but it cannot comprehend the total because the total is so vast.

A river dropping into the ocean... it comes to know the ocean, it feels the ocean, it lives in the ocean, it

merges in it, but it cannot merge into the TOTAL ocean. It cannot spread to the total ocean; it cannot know
the total ocean. It only knows a part of it.

When your consciousness falls like a river into the Brahman, into the ocean of the ultimate, you will

know him but you will not know him in his totality. You cannot; there is no possibility. So the Brahman is
unknowable because the whole remains unknowable to the part; hence, the problem when someone comes
to know. Someone becomes ignorant, egoless, and comes to know: then, too, he cannot say, "I have known
the whole."

He cannot say, "I have not known," and he cannot say, "I have known." He can say, "In a way I know, in

a way I do not know. In a sense I have entered into him and he has entered into me but I am just a drop and
he is the ocean. I know him, but still the total remains a mystery." Because of this, those who have known
through their ignorance, through dropping themselves, they also are in a difficulty over what to say about it.
They cannot deny the knowledge, they cannot declare the knowledge. This has to be so. Because of this
many have remained silent.

Buddha would never answer any question about the Brahman. Wheresoever he would move, his

disciples would spread the word: "Do not ask anything about the ultimate because Buddha is not going to
answer anything about it."
Someone asked Buddha, "Why don't you answer?"

Buddha said, "If I answer, it is going to be false in some way or other. If I say, 'I know,' it is wrong --

because how can a drop know the ocean? If I say, 'I do not know,' it is wrong, because the drop knows the
ocean. The drop is just an atomic part of the ocean. The whole ocean is in the drop also. Really, knowing a

drop of water totally, you know the ocean, because nothing else is there. The drop contains everything, but
still it is a drop. So if I say, 'I know,' it will be wrong, because I am only a drop. If I say, 'I do not know,' it
will be wrong, because I know. I am also an ocean -- a minute ocean. So it is better to keep silent."

But even silence can be misunderstood and it was misunderstood. People who were against Buddha

started saying, "He is not saying because doesn't know. He is silent because he has not yet entered the
Brahman; otherwise he must say." Look at the difficulty: if he says, "I know," then there will be difficulty;
if he says, "I do not know," then there will be difficulty. If he keeps quiet, then people will misunderstand.

The ultimate cannot be conveyed in any way; whether you are silent or saying something, it remains

unconveyed. It cannot be transferred; it remains untransferred. It cannot be communicated, it is beyond
communication.

A third difficulty comes and makes it a problem again and that is: Brahman means the ground, the

source of everything. The source must remain a mystery; it cannot be decoded. Who will decode it? No one
can stand beside it. For decoding you need someone who can be an observer -- separate, neutral, looking at
a thing from a distance. We cannot be at a distance from the ultimate. We are in it just like fishes swimming
in a pool. Those fishes cannot stand aside, cannot observe the pool.

Kabir used to say that once a fish heard two scholars talking on the bank of a river, talking about what

the ocean is. The fish became very much mystified; she started inquiring. It became an obsession for her --
what the ocean was. She inquired from elders, and they said that they had also heard about it, but they didn't
know what it was. They had never seen it -- and they all lived in the ocean. But how can you see a thing if
you live in it? They were born in it, but how can you know a thing if you are born in it? You are so much a
part of it and it is so much a part of you that there is no distance, so you cannot know. Then the inquiring
fish went on inquiring, moved on inquiring. No one could answer her, but everyone said that they had heard
that there was an ocean.

Kabir says that this is the situation of man who goes on inquiring what God is, where God is, who God

is. We are in him; hence, the difficulty. And for a fish it is possible to jump out of the river or out of the
ocean. Even for a few seconds the fish can jump out of the ocean and be on the bank and look at the ocean.
But for man there is no such possibility. You cannot jump out of the Brahman; there is no bank to it. You
cannot jump out; there IS nothing out of it. Everything is in and nothing is out. That is what is meant by
infinity.

You cannot go out of existence, or can you? -- because the moment you go out of existence you are no

more. You cannot go out of existence. All is existence, everywhere is existence. Wherever you go existence
is there, so no distance is possible. You cannot become an observer; you cannot look at Brahman. The
mystery cannot be decoded. The mystery is so basic, so ultimate, so universal, and you are just a fish in the
ocean. The Brahman cannot be known the way we know other facts because other facts can be observed by
us.

Science decodes; science goes on decoding. But science can decode because science never takes the

ultimate question. It only takes non-ultimate questions. It can come to know what hydrogen is; it can come
to know what atomic structure is. You can observe. You can go into a lab and you can observe and you can
penetrate into the mystery of things because no thing is ultimate. But how can you observe and experiment
with the Brahman? Where, how, is it to be penetrated? Wherever you go you are part of it, in it. The
mystery cannot be decoded. The Brahman remains mysterious -- and if the Brahman is an ultimate mystery,
how can you say you have known? You can know something only when it is demystified. The moment you
know, there is no mystery. That is why science is a mystery killer. And the more science grows and the
more people are trained scientifically, the more they lose contact with mystery.

Science is a sure mystery killer, it goes on killing mystery. That is why the world has become so poor

and science has made it so rich. The world was never so rich and so poor before. Everything has become
richer. You are living in better houses, using better clothes, eating better food. Everything has become
richer. Even kings would become jealous if they could be revived from the past. Even Ashoka and Akbar
would feel poor before you because even an Ashoka cannot use the shirt you are using. The bathroom you
are using, even for Akbar it would be a luxury.

The world has become richer as far as things are concerned but man has become poorer and poorer

because there is no mystery. Life has become nonmysterious, dead. Only a mystery can be alive.

Look at children: they are more alive. Why? And why is an old man not so alive? It is not only a

question of aging. The basic question is deeper. The child is alive because the child is living in a mystery:
everything is mysterious for him -- everything. The seed is sprouting. The child looks at the seed sprouting:

it is so mysterious that he cannot believe that it can happen. A bird has alighted on a branch and is singing:
it is so mysterious. The clouds moving in the sky and the rain falling, everything is mysterious. The child
lives in a wonderland; hence, the aliveness -- because everything is a challenge. Life is not flat, life has
nooks and corners that are undiscovered. The child goes on jumping, inquiring, looking at everything.
Everything is so mysterious because the child is ignorant.

Back in the days of the Upanishads everyone was so alive, everything was mysterious. There was

wonder, and when there is wonder you are alive because there is a challenge outside to penetrate the
mystery. Science goes on killing mystery; it goes on explaining everything. Whatsoever you do, there is an
explanation -- and once explained the mystery is gone, everything becomes flat. With nothing to discover
there is no challenge. And when there is no challenge life subsides; it cannot dance, it cannot explode. There
is nothing.

For these three centuries, humanity has been made so poor -- unimaginably poor. Science has explained

the world of things and psychology has tried to explain the world of the mind. If you fall in love it is a
mystery. But go and ask Freud and he will explain the whole thing. He will say that this is nothing, just
hormones in the body, and "Do not get too serious about it. It is just chemicals working -- just particular
hormones forcing you to be in love. This is nothing to get mad about. Those hormones can be pulled out of
your body and the love will disappear, or an injection can be given of those hormones and you will fall in a
deeper love. So it is hormonal. Do not get too much into it." And once explained, the mystery of love is
gone.

Now they are teaching sex all over the world. It is good in a way but only as an antidote. Because of the

Victorian puritanic teachings it is good, as a reaction, to teach children about sex. But on a deeper layer it is
very dangerous because once explained the mystery of sex is lost. And this is happening particularly in
America where now everything is known about sex. People are becoming disinterested in it. They will get
disinterested when everything is known.

Masters and Johnson, two experimenters, have penetrated the mystery of sex through electronic devices.

While a couple is making love, electronic devices inside the vagina go on recording what is happening; a
graph is made. While a couple is making love, devices go on working which are recording what is
happening to the blood, to the breathing, to the body, to the hormones. Then the whole mystery is clear, and
then they say, "This is just a mechanical thing. It happens because of these causes."

Once the mystery about sex is gone your life will be just a boredom. While making love to your wife or

to your beloved, you know what is going on. The blood pressure is changing, the hormones are running: you
know everything. And then there is no need, really, to be involved in love, because love can be done by
devices also.

Masters and Johnson, they have devised electronic penises and vaginas. And now they say an electronic

penis, an electrical device, can give a deeper orgasm than any man can do because it goes on vibrating --
and it is only a question of vibration. Man has limited energy but an electronic device has unlimited energy.
Put on, it goes on vibrating. It can give a deeper orgasm to the woman. It can give multiple orgasms. And
once a woman knows that an electric penis can give such a height of pleasure, than all lovers will be just
pale before it. But this is dangerous. It is a penetration in a very dangerous terrain. Once the mystery is
known, the romance is gone.

Science in every way has tried to demystify life. I am emphasizing this fact so that because of this

background you can understand the meaning of religion. Religion is to mystify life and science is to
demystify it. Religion says that the mystery is so ultimate, nothing can be known about it. Whatsoever you
know is just temporary and whatsoever you know is just shifting the problem. It is never solved; you only
shift it a step back. Nothing is solved. All your explanations are just artificial -- because the ultimate
remains hidden and no explanation explains it. The why cannot be answered even if you answer the how.

For example, science can say that there is no mystery in the water. It is just that hydrogen atoms and

oxygen atoms meet and water is created -- H2O -- and the mystery is solved. Two atoms of hydrogen and
one atom of oxygen and the mystery is solved but religion says that this is only the answer to the how; the
why is yet unexplained. Why do two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen make water -- why? We
have come to know how, so if we arrange two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen, water will be
created. We know the how but the why remains unexplained and the why is the Brahman.

Why is it happening that two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen make water? Why not three

atoms of hydrogen? Why not four atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen? Science says that we are not
interested in the why, we are only interested in the how. Religion says that how is a superficial inquiry,

because unless you answer the why, the how can be used but the mystery remains; the mystery is not
destroyed. The why of existence is the Brahman.

So science ultimately is reduced to technology because it is a how -- a know-how. Science always goes

on being converted into technology. You know the how, then you know the technique: you can use it, and
the technology is created. Science just becomes a forerunner of technology, just a pilot to technology.

Religion is based on mystery. It believes in mystery and believes that mystery is ultimate. You cannot

destroy it, you cannot decode it: that is the beauty of it. Once you feel that the mystery is ultimate and
undecodable, you are like a small child filled with wonder. And when wonder grips you, only then are you
alive to the maximum. When the wonder is not there, you are alive to the minimum.

You pass through life without wondering eyes; hence life appears so boring. It is not life that is boring,

it is your eyes without wonder: they create boredom. You can regain the insight if you can regain a
wondering mind, which goes on wondering to the very end where it meets the ultimate mystery. There you
can go on wondering and wondering and you can never solve it. A puzzle is not a mystery because a puzzle
can be solved. A mystery is such a puzzle which cannot be solved. Science is interested in puzzles which
can be solved, which are solvable. Religion is interested only in the mystery which cannot be solved. And
the more you penetrate, the more you know that this is impossible to solve.

Greek philosophers have said that philosophy is born in wonder. The Upanishads say that philosophy is

born in wonder but religion ends in wonder. Philosophy is born in wonder but it is against wonder. It is born
in wonder but then it tries to destroy it, tries to find answers, tries to find answers and explanations. Out of
this attitude of Greek philosophy that philosophy is born in wonder, and the subsequent effort to overcome
it, Western science was born. But the source remains in the Greek mind. Western science is just the success
of Greek philosophy. Philosophy is born in wonder but ends in explanation: then it becomes science.
Philosophy starts with wonder and ends in explanation, system, solution: then it becomes science. When
science experiments, comes to know the how, it becomes technology.

The Upanishads say religion ends in wonder, not that it begins. Wherever you begin, religion ends in

wonder. The mystery remains there; it is never solved. This is the basic difference between the Indian mind
and the Greek mind -- and these are the two basic minds in the world. Because of the Greek mind Western
science came into being and because of the Indian mind no science came into being: religion came into
being.

All the greatest religions were born in the East. In the West there has never been a birth of any religion

at all. All the great religions were born in the East and the deepest were born in India. Others that were born
around India, but not exactly in India, are just echoes of the Indian. Christ was basically a Hindu; that is
why Jews could not understand him, they had to kill him. All the deepest religions -- Hinduism, Buddhism,
Jainism -- were born in India. And science basically originated from Athens; it is Greek.

The Greek attitude is that when you become aware of life you feel wonder. Then it is the duty of the

human mind to destroy this wonder and to find explanations. The Upanishads say that wherever you find
any explanation, penetrate deep into it -- and sooner or later you will come to the base where mystery is.

Explanation is only on the surface; nothing can be explained: this is the attitude of the Upanishads.

Everything remains unexplained and will remain unexplained. It is only the human ego that thinks that
explanations have to be found. Why this insistence on mystery? -- because if there is mystery, only then can
you be ignorant. Remember this: if there is mystery, ultimate mystery in the existence, only then can you
remain ignorant. With mystery there, ignorance inside the heart is possible. If everything can be explained,
you will become knowledgeable. Then you will cling to knowledge. Then you will cling to knowledge and
knowledge will become very, very important.

In the Western universities they have been teaching knowledge for centuries. Now in the East also,

universities are teaching knowledge because they are nothing but copies of the West. Basically, originally,
Eastern universities never taught knowledge. Nalanda and Takshashila, they were not teaching knowledge,
they were teaching meditation. They were teaching a deep ignorance and a deep mystery around. Now there
exists no Eastern university. All of the universities are Western wherever they exist, whether in the East or
in the West. They go on stuffing the mind with knowledge.

So whenever a student comes back from a university he is a stuffed being. He has no soul, he has only

knowledge. And then he creates problems. He will create them because the university has given him only
the ego -- nothing else. He has not learned a single piece of humanity or humbleness. He has not touched a
single point of non-ego. He has not looked from that window from where life is mystery. He is ignorant; he
has not looked from that window. He has been stuffed with knowledge. Knowledge gives him the feeling

that he is very significant and very important because he KNOWS. The ego is strengthened, then the ego
creates every problem that is possible.

The ego creates politics, the ego creates ambition. The ego creates jealousy, the ego creates a constant

struggle, violence, because the ego cannot be satisfied unless it reaches to the top. And everyone is trying to
reach to the top. A cut-throat competition arises in every arena of life. In economics, politics, education,
everywhere, there is cut-throat competition. No one is interested in himself; everyone is interested in the
ambition to reach to the top and no one thinks where he is going when he is reaching to the top. What will
you achieve just by reaching the top? Nothing is achieved. You simply waste your life.

Eastern universities were teaching a deep ignorance -- the basic ignorance that man cannot penetrate the

mystery because the mystery is ultimate. It is basic to nature... and man is just part of the same mystery.
When these two mysteries meet -- the mystery within man and the mystery within existence -- when these
two mysteries meet, there is ecstasy. Life becomes beautiful. It becomes an eternal music; it becomes a
dance. You can dance only if there is mystery. The dancing god is needed -- a god who can dance. And
existence is dancing all around. Look! This is not a theory. Look at existence! It is dancing all around.
Every particle is dancing. Only you have become stuck to the ground. You cannot move, you cannot dance
because you know; your knowledge has become poison.
Now we will enter the sutra:

IF YOU THINK THAT YOU KNOW BRAHMAN WELL, THEN YOU KNOW LITTLE INDEED.

Really, you do not know at all -- not even a little, because you are still there claiming. The ego is still

being maintained; the ego still remains the center. The ego is still asserting, saying, "I know."

IF YOU THINK THAT YOU KNOW BRAHMAN WELL, THEN YOU KNOW LITTLE INDEED.

And if you say such a thing, it is only a thinking, not an experience. You can think that you know, but

this is not an experience. If you experience, then you will not be capable of saying that "I know."

It is so vast: how can you know it? It is so endless, beginningless: how can you know it? The claim

seems to be absurd -- obscene. To know Brahman seems to be just a stupid claim. Only idiots can claim it.
The claim can come only out of ignorance. Because you do not really know anything, you claim it.

IF YOU THINK THAT YOU KNOW BRAHMAN WELL, THEN YOU KNOW LITTLE INDEED, FOR THE FORM
OF BRAHMAN THAT YOU SEE AS CONDITIONAL IN LIVING BEINGS AND GODS IS BUT A TRIFLE.

Even if you have come to feel the Brahman in the manifested world -- in the trees, in the hills, in man, in

animals, in birds -- if you have come to feel this life as Brahman, that too is a trifle, this is just a minute part
of the unmanifest. The Upanishads say that the Brahman has two forms -- the manifest and the unmanifest.
The manifest has become the world, the unmanifest remains unknown. Many worlds have been born out of
it, many have disappeared in it. This is not the first world, remember.

Christianity used to say just two centuries ago that the world was created four thousand and four years

before Jesus Christ. Then there was great conflict between scientific investigation and this claim, because
science came to know that this earth has been in existence for at least millions of years. There was conflict.
Now, the more scientists know, the further back goes the beginning. But the Upanishads say that this is only
one of the worlds: many have existed before it and have disappeared.

The existence is an infinite process. So there is no beginning, really, and there cannot be any end. How

can there be a beginning? A beginning means that there was nothing before it. And how can this world
come out of nothing? Something can only come out of something; something cannot come out of nothing.
That is absurd. How can something come out of nothing? If it comes at all, there must have been something
preceding it.

The Upanishads say that this is not the first world, this is not the first creation. It is only one chain in a

long, beginningless, endless procession of existences. Worlds have been in being and then they have
disappeared. Just as a child is born, then he becomes young, then old, and then he dies. But the child is born
of parents and those parents were also born of other parents. And this goes on and you cannot find the
beginning.

The Upanishads have no concept of Adam and Eve, the first man and the first woman. They say there

has never been a first woman and a first man. The FIRST is just nonsense: we are always in the middle. The
beginning was never there and so the end is not going to be there.

Just like a child, the earth is born out of parents. There may have been a collision between two big stars.

When two parents collided, the earth was born. Now scientists say that something like this must have
happened: a collision of two stars. Who knows if the Upanishads are not true? When two stars, one feminine
and one male, collide, the earth is born. The earth is alive; it is not dead. There are dead earths also. Now
scientists suspect that the moon may be a dead earth. It may have been alive some time back.

This earth is alive. The greenery of the trees is just part of its life. Your consciousness is just part of its

growth. It has been evolving. It is young; it will become old. It will die, but somewhere else life will erupt.
Now scientists say that at least there is a mathematical possibility of fifty thousand earths being alive in the
whole of existence -- fifty thousand planets alive! This is just a mathematical possibility. We have no
contact with other living earths but when one earth dies another is born. Somewhere birth happens,
somewhere death; somewhere death happens, somewhere birth. Life goes on continuing. It is a continuity --
an eternal continuity.

Whatsoever we know is always a very small, atomic part. Backwards, it spreads to the beginningless

beginning; forwards, it spreads to the endless end. We are always in the middle. Only a particle of existence
is known. And this whole existence, so vast, is still a part. The whole is also a part because it is the
manifested.

Look at me: I am communicating something to you. Whatsoever I communicate is just the manifested

part. There remains in my heart much that is uncommunicated: that is the unmanifest part. My silence is the
unmanifest part; my words are the manifest part. In my words a part of my silence is being communicated
but my words are not my whole being. My words are just a part, and behind that part a deeper silence is
hidden.

A poet is singing a song -- Rabindranath or a Shelley or a Yeats is singing a song: that song is just a

manifest part of the poet's being but thousands and thousands of songs can be born out of that being.

The Upanishads say this whole world, this universe, is just a song which has become manifest. In the

heart of the divine infinite songs are waiting to be manifested. He has been singing many songs which have
disappeared. He is singing this one right now; he will sing many. We can be acquainted only with one song
but not even with the one song in its totality -- just with a part of its tune, just a fragment, just a word, a
gesture. The infinite remains unknown around it.
The sutra says:

... FOR THE FORM OF BRAHMAN THAT YOU SEE AS CONDITIONAL IN LIVING BEINGS AND GODS IS
BUT A TRIFLE. THEREFORE, YOU SHOULD INQUIRE FURTHER ABOUT BRAHMAN.

Really, there comes no end to this inquiry. It goes on and on and on, and the more you inquire, the more

abysses open. The more you inquire, the greater the doors that open. The mystery is not demystified: it
deepens. The more you know, the more of what is to be known is before you. The wider your focus, the
wider becomes your consciousness. Greater possibilities open before you to be known and this goes on and
on and on; this play is endless.

So wherever you feel to stop, beware! There is no point to stop at. Wherever you feel, "Now I have

achieved," beware! You are falling a victim to the ego again. There is no point where one can say, "I have
achieved." The point is always reaching and reaching but it never reaches.

That is the meaning of the infinity of the Brahman. You never come to a point where you can say, "Now

the journey is finished." The journey goes on and on and on. That journey is infinite life. YOU finish
somewhere but the journey never ends. Your ego is no more at a point. Really, at that point the real journey
starts. But then it goes on infinitely. There is no end to it; there cannot be any end to it. You drop
somewhere. When you come to realize that you are just a burden to yourself, you drop yourself and you
move on. This movement is eternal.
I DO NOT THINK I KNOW IT WELL, the master says.

I DO NOT THINK I KNOW IT WELL, NOR DO I THINK THAT I DO NOT KNOW IT.

This is the mystery. I cannot say that I know it well because much more is still to be known and much

more will be there always to be known. This knowing of Brahman is always a beginning. There is no end to
it. You begin it once, then it goes on and on. So I cannot say that I KNOW IT WELL: that claim will be
wrong. NOR DO I THINK THAT I DO NOT KNOW IT. But the opposite is also true. I cannot say that I do
not know it -- I KNOW IT ALSO.

This is the difference between the Greek and the Indian mind. The Greek mind cannot conceive of this

sentence. Impossible for Aristotle to conceive of this sentence! Aristotle will say that this is a basic law of

logic: that if you know you know. If you do not know you do not know. There can be no middle to it. If you
are alive you are alive; if you are dead you are dead. There cannot be any middle to it -- or can there be?
Can you say, "I cannot say that I am alive and I cannot say that I am dead"? Then Aristotle will say that you
have gone mad. Either of the two is true; both cannot be true. Aristotle says that both cannot be true; two
opposites cannot be true. One will be true.

This seer of the Upanishads says, "I cannot say I know."
Then Aristotle will say, "Stop! This is finished. If you cannot say you know, drop the matter."
But he goes on and says, "I cannot say that I do not know."
This, Aristotle cannot approve. The founder, the father of Western logic, cannot approve. He will say,

"Now you are going crazy." Can you say that you are in the room and out of the room? You cannot say this.
You cannot say that you are in and out of the room. Either you are in the room or you are out of the room:
both cannot be true. Can you say, "I cannot say whether I am in the room and I cannot say either that I am
out of the room"? To us, also, Aristotle appears right, he appears true. To the common mind, to ordinary
logic, he is exactly right, logical.

Indian seers are illogical in this sense. They go on saying opposites simultaneously but they have

something to convey through it. They are not really wrong; they have something to say and that something
is so mysterious that it can be conveyed only when opposites are used together. The mystery can be
conveyed only through contradictions, through inconsistencies.

I DO NOT THINK THAT I KNOW IT WELL, NOR DO I THINK THAT I DO NOT KNOW IT. YET, I KNOW TOO.

I know in a sense and I do not know in a sense. I know because I am part of it; it is impossible not to

know it. And I do not know it because I am only a part and it is impossible for the part to know the whole.
Both are true and if you can feel that both are true, then just between the two contradictions a new meaning
will arise. You will feel what the rishi is trying to express and you will feel how difficult it is to express it.
Too much is felt and the words cannot carry that too much, so both the opposites have to be used to carry it.

For example, the Upanishads say that the divine is very far, then immediately they say that he is very

near. How, if he is very far, can he be very near? Or if he is very near, how can he be very far? But they
have something to say and it is very significant. Through this absurdity they are trying to convey something
which is not easy to convey or which is even unconveyable. He is very far because you have forgotten him.
That forgetfulness creates the distance. And he is very near because whatsoever you do, whether you forget
him or remember him, you cannot be alive without him. He is the very beat of your heart. He is breathing in
and out; he is you. You can forget him but you still remain him. Hence, this contradictory way of
expression: "He is far and near," and "I know him and I do not know him."

The Upanishads will not agree with Socrates. I told you that Socrates said, "Once I knew; now I say I do

not know." He is again following the Greek trend of mind. He is very consistent. He says, "Once I felt that I
knew. Now I feel that it is wrong. I do not know." A third possibility is there when you say, "In a way I
know; in a way I do not know."

First Socrates was claiming absolute knowledge, now he is claiming absolute ignorance -- but in both

the cases he claims the absolute, he clings to the absolute. He is not contradictory. Once he said, "I know";
now he says, "I do not know." Upanishadic seers say both simultaneously: "I know and I do not know." Try
to feel the thing that is just in between the two, between the lines, just in the gap.

HE AMONGST US KNOWS IT WHO KNOWS THAT IT IS OTHER THAN THE UNKNOWN AND THE
KNOWN.

The known is your knowledge; the unknown is your ignorance. If you say, "I know," you have made

him known. If you say, "I do not know," you have made him unknown. And he alone amongst you knows,
who knows he is neither the known nor the unknown, but the unknowable. He is the mystery.

Only one who knows him as the mystery, as the mysterium, as the ultimate mysterious which cannot be

solved, only HE knows it.

The Supreme Doctrine

Chapter #9

Chapter title: Death: The Climax of Life

12 July 1973 pm in Mt Abu Meditation Camp

Archive code: 7307125

ShortTitle: DOCTRN09

Audio:

Yes

Video:

No

Length: 104 mins

The first question:

BELOVED OSHO,
IN THE FOURTH STEP OF THE MORNING MEDITATION, IN THE EFFORT TO KEEP THE BODY FROZEN
OR DEAD, ONE TENDS TO BECOME TENSE. AS THIS IS THE STEP OF RELAXATION AND TOTAL
LET-GO, HOW IS ONE TO RELAX AND ALSO BE FROZEN AT THE SAME TIME? RATHER THAN
ECSTASY, IT BECOMES A TENSION.

A dead person is totally relaxed. He cannot be tense. A dead person cannot be tense -- or can he? He is

relaxed because there is no ego to be tense. Only the ego can be tense. When in the fourth step I say be
dead, it means to be so relaxed that you are just like a dead man. You are not to try to be frozen and dead. If
you try, then you will get the reverse result. Do not try to be frozen; do not make any effort to be dead.
Simply relax and be dead.

These are two different things. If you try to be dead, then your whole body will become tense. And

when you are tense, you cannot be dead, you cannot relax. Simply relax the body as if it is no more, as if it
has gone dead. Do not make any effort to make it dead. Simply relax, and feel that it has gone dead and you
have nothing to do about it.

I have been telling you that even if you feel a sneeze coming, do not sneeze, do not cough. But if you

feel an irritation in the throat, what will you do? If you try to prevent it, it will become more penetrating. If
you try to block it, it will become more forcible because this is a sort of suppression. Then you will have to
cough. If you feel a sneeze coming, what will you do? If you hold it, it will become more forcible, it will
come out with a greater force.

But there is a way: if you feel that your throat is irritated and you want to cough, relax the throat. Do not

prevent it. Simply relax the throat; be indifferent to the irritation. Relax the throat. Do not make it tense
because tension will create more irritation. Relax the throat and be indifferent; feel as if you are not
concerned. Within seconds the irritation will go. If you feel that a sneeze is coming, just be indifferent to it;
do not do anything about it. Relax the part where you feel that the sneeze is hitting, and be indifferent.

In that indifference, out of one hundred times, ninety-nine times the sneeze will disappear. Out of a

hundred times, there is only one possibility that the sneeze will come -- but that too will not disturb you
because you are so indifferent that even if it happens you will feel that it is happening to someone else. You
will be so unconcerned that even if it comes it makes no difference. You will remain unperturbed within.

And I am not saying to you not to sneeze because others will be disturbed -- no! And I am not saying not

to cough because others will be disturbed. That is not the point. You will become disturbed. You will lose
the whole point of the effort; the whole endeavor will be lost.

In the morning meditation, relax. After the third step, relax. One thing more which you should

remember: when I say "Stop!" in the morning meditation, or when the music stops, do not make your body
comfortable. Do not try to take a posture; do not lie down. Leave the body as it is. Stop then and there, even
if it is inconvenient and uncomfortable.

You were jumping and the posture is uncomfortable: remain frozen in that posture, do not change it. The

moment you hear that the music has stopped, you stop. Become dead. You can make your body
comfortable, you can lie down, but this gap will have already disturbed the energy; this gap will have
already changed the direction.

In the three steps you have created a vital force, a floodlike force. Now, just by making your body

comfortable, you will have forgotten it and your attention will have become diverted. Do not do that. When
I say, "Stop!" stop immediately, then and there. And do not try to deceive. Do not say to yourself, "No one
is looking at me, so why not make the body a little more comfortable? It is no one's concern." Then you are
deceiving yourself.

One thing more. In the second step, when you are expressing all the suppressed emotions, when you are

going completely mad in catharsis, do one thing emphatically: contract your facial muscles and relax.
Contract and relax. Your body is not as tense as your face is because your face is the focal point of all
suppression. And your face is the most expressive; that is why the face becomes the most suppressive. It is
through your face that you express or suppress. In the second step, go on expressing through the whole
body, but remember also to make the face tense and relaxed, tense and relaxed. In that way, much
suppressed emotion will be released more easily.

Relaxation is not something to be done, really; you cannot DO it. No one can do it because relaxation is

against doing. You can simply stop doing and relaxation happens. So when I say "Stop!" when the music
stops, stop completely as you are; do not do anything. You simply stop, stop all doing -- not even a single
movement. Then a very deep silence will happen to you and you will feel the difference. You have been
making yourself comfortable; from now on do not make your body comfortable.

In the afternoon meditation also, after KIRTAN, when the music stops, you stop -- AS YOU ARE.

Suddenly all the activity stops, and the whole energy moves only inwards; there is no opportunity for it to
be diverted anywhere. And the same applies for the evening meditation which we will do just now. When I
say, "Stop!" stop completely as you are. And when again the music starts and you begin to express your
ecstasy, only then begin moving again. For the gap in between, remain in nondoing and the relaxation will
happen.

The second question:

BELOVED OSHO,
WHY IS THE ULTIMATE EXPERIENCE HARD TO ATTAIN? IT SEEMS TO ME THAT IT IS PART OF
NATURE'S INTENTION TO MAKE IT VERY DIFFICULT AND TO REQUIRE MAN TO GO THROUGH AGES
OF DEVELOPMENT BEFORE HE REACHES IT. ISN'T THERE A DIVINE PURPOSE WHY IT TAKES HIM
SO LONG TO REACH?

It is not! It is not hard to attain. It is very easy. But because it is so easy, it has become hard. The ego is

always interested in whatsoever is hard to attain because then the ego feels a challenge. The ego is not
interested in doing whatsoever is easy; that is the problem. The ego is not interested in doing meditation;
that is the only reason why it appears to be so hard.

It is so easy -- but so easy that there is no challenge in it. No ambition can be fulfilled through it; you

cannot attain to any worldly power through it; you cannot attain to any worldly prestige through it. Really,
you do not attain anything in the world which is visible. Rather, on the contrary, you go on losing and
finally you lose yourself. It is hard because you are not ready to lose yourself; it is easy if you are ready to
lose yourself. In a single moment it can happen. Otherwise you will take lives and lives and lives and it will
not happen.

The question is not of time; the question is deeper. The question is whether you are ready to lose

yourself. But you can ask, "Why is it so hard to lose? Why are people not ready to lose more easily?" There
is a reason, and the reason is that losing oneself appears to be deathlike and no one wants to die. Everyone
wants to live -- to live more. Everyone wants to avoid death.

Of course, no one can avoid it. No one ever succeeds in avoiding it. Death occurs. Death is the only

certainty. All else is uncertain in life. Only death is certain. Death will happen whether you are trying to
avoid it or not. You cannot escape it. In a sense it had already happened the moment you were born. Half of
it has already happened and the other half will follow. And these two halves cannot be divided.

Buddha says again and again, "Once born, you will have to die" -- because you have entered death with

your birth, it is an entry. You are already dead in a way. You have already started to die. The moment you
are born, you have started to die. Your death process has started.

But we are afraid to die and we cling to life. Why do we cling to life and why are we afraid of death?

You may not have thought about it. The reason why we cling so much to life and why we are afraid of death
is just inconceivable. We cling to life so much because we do not know how to live. We cling to life so

much because really we are not alive. And time is passing and death is coming nearer and nearer. And we
are afraid that death is coming near and we have not lived yet.

This is the fear: death will come and we have not lived yet. We are just preparing to live. Nothing is

ready; life has not happened. We have not known the ecstasy which life is; we have not known the bliss life
is; we have not known anything. We have just been breathing in and out. We have been just existing. Life
has been just a hope and death is coming near. And if life has not yet happened and death happens before it,
of course, obviously, we will be afraid because we would not like to die.

Only those persons who have lived, really lived, are ready, welcoming, receptive, thankful to death.

Then death is not the enemy. Then death becomes the fulfillment. If you have really lived and known what
life is, then death is not the end of life. It is the fulfillment, it is the peak, it is the climax, it is the last thing
that life can offer to you -- and the best.

Life offers only two things: one is love, another is death -- and both are dangerous because in both you

will have to die. In love you will have to dissolve yourself. In death also you will have to dissolve yourself.
And you are so afraid of death, of losing yourself, that deep down you have become afraid -- afraid of love
also. You go on talking about love, but no one is ready to love because love is deathlike. Love and death,
those are natural phenomena.

If man simply lives naturally, love will happen and death will also happen and both will be peaks. Love

is dying into the other person and death is dying into the universe. But love is not ultimate death; you will
come out of it. You will come out of the other person again, there will be a resurrection. And death is also
not ultimate because you will be reborn. You will come out of the universe again and you will enter a body
and you will become embodied.

Meditation is ultimate death: it goes beyond love and beyond death both. You cannot come out of it; that

is why it is the most dangerous thing. Even in death there is the possibility you will be reborn, that you will
come out of it. You will dissolve and you will again integrate, you will again evolve. So death will just be a
passage of change but meditation is final death -- ultimate, absolute death. You cannot come out of it;
hence, the fear. And because of the fear it looks so hard; otherwise it is as easy as anything can be. But love
is difficult, so meditation will be difficult. Death is difficult, so meditation will be difficult.

To me, therefore, love is very significant: if you can love, you can meditate easily. But the whole society

is against love, the whole culture is against love. They take every precaution so that love should not happen.
They have created marriage so that love should not happen. Through marriage they have tried to close the
very door. Before you get involved in love -- a death process -- they have protected you. They have created
all types of teachings, all types of nonsense in your mind, to make love immoral.

And, basically, you are also afraid because in love you will have to lose your identity. You want to

remain yourself so you go on protecting yourself. Even if you move in love, you move in a very protected
way, very carefully. You remain an individual even in love. You remain an ego. So two egos meet but the
meeting is only going to be an appearance. They can come near but the meeting never happens. They never
dissolve into each other; they never lose themselves into each other.

If you can love, meditation will be very easy. The world will be more religious if love is accepted,

helped along, and love becomes a natural milieu around you. Then meditation will be very easy because you
will know a taste through love of what it means to be dissolved, even if only for a single moment. Then you
can dare to be dissolved for longer moments.

And if you can love, you will not be afraid of death. Lovers are never afraid of death. And if a person is

afraid of death, you can be certain that he has not loved and he has not been loved. The fear of love shows
that the life has been without love. Lovers are ready to die very easily. They can die for each other. They do
not care much about so-called life because they have known a higher quality of life; they have known a
higher life. They do not care about this life very much.

But look at persons who have never loved. They will always be afraid of death. Look at misers: they

will always be afraid of death. And misers are those persons who have not loved anyone because if you can
love a person you will never love money. Money is a substitute. When you cannot love an individual, when
you cannot love a live person, you love dead money.

Misers, those who go on clinging to their possessions, are not even acquainted with what love is. Their

whole love has gone to dead money. And why has it gone? There are deeper connections. A person who is
too much attached to money will be afraid of death. Really, a person who is afraid of death will love money
too much because money seems to be a protection against death. If you have money you feel protected. If
you do not have any money you feel unprotected. Death can occur and you cannot do anything. With money

you feel that you can do something. Money will be helpful.

A person who loves will not love money because a person who loves will not be afraid of death. And if

a person is not afraid of death, there cannot be any clinging, attachment, mad obsession with money. It is
impossible.

If you can love, then you will accept death very easily. It will be a deep relaxation, a long sleep, a

beautiful dissolution into the existence. And if you can be receptive to death, then meditation can be as easy
as anything. The problem arises because love is not there. When death has become a fear, then meditation
will be difficult because it is both love plus death. It is death as far as your ego is concerned; it is love as far
as the divine existence is concerned.

I define meditation in a mathematical formula: meditation is equal to love plus death -- love to the

existence, to the total, and death to the ego. They are both two aspects of the same coin because you can
love the total only if you are ready to lose the individual. If you are ready to die, only then can you be
reborn as the existence, as the Brahman.

Jesus says, "Only if you lose can you survive. And those who try to survive will be lost." It is hard

because you have not loved; it is hard because you have not lived. It is not hard by itself. Meditation by
itself is very easy -- a spontaneous phenomenon. If a human being evolves naturally, falls into love, knows
what love is, knows what type of death and what type of life love is, comes out of it, knows the taste of
moving into and being in death, then he will love death -- not as being against life. Death changes the
quality then. Then it becomes the last point in life, the highest peak, the climax of life. Then meditation is
very easy.

Those of you who are ready to lose can understand it; it is very easy. Those of you who are not ready to

lose cannot understand it. One friend came to me today. He said, "Whatsoever you say appears to be
absolutely true. I am totally satisfied; my mind is in agreement with you. But do not tell me to do this
meditation. Is it not possible," the friend asked, "that just by total agreement with your thoughts I can
achieve enlightenment? Is it necessary to move in this meditation?"

What is the fear? You can agree with me intellectually, but you are not losing yourself. And, really, if

you go deep and penetrate more, you will find the whole process to be just the reverse. You agree with me
intellectually because you have always been feeling that whatsoever I am saying is true. Really, you are not
agreeing with me; I am agreeing with you. You feel me agreeable, so your ego is fulfilled. "Right!" you say
inside your mind, "this is what I have been thinking always. You are right, because this has been my idea."
You feel fulfilled, satisfied. Your ego is strengthened. This is not going to lead you to enlightenment.
Rather, it may lead you to deeper ignorance -- because the ego....

What is the fear? Moving in meditation, the fear is that you will have to lose the ego; you will have to

lose your identity. And this is a mad sort of meditation. If I say to you just sit in a Buddhalike posture and
close your eyes, you can sit easily because you are not afraid. You can sit easily because nothing is
expected, really. But in this mad, chaotic meditation in which you have to lose yourself, your identity, your
image, you become just crazy. You feel you are losing control, and sooner or later the group mind takes
possession of you.

Then you are dancing, but you know very well, deeply, that YOU are not dancing. The whole group is

dancing, and you have just become a part of it. You cannot stop it, really. A moment comes when you
cannot stop it; you are no more in possession. Something greater than you has taken the grip, something
greater than you has taken control: that is the fear.

If you sit in a SIDDHASAN -- in a Buddhalike posture, you are in control. But this meditation is

throwing you out of control. Really, it is pulling the ground from beneath your feet. You are being pushed
into an abyss, into a whirlwind where you are no more. Something deeper, something greater, something
more powerful, has taken possession. Now it is not that you are dancing, something else is dancing; you are
just a part of that greater dance. This gives you fear. This makes everything difficult.

So I will tell you: be ready to lose and it will be easy. Resist, and it is difficult and hard. Resistance

makes it hard; let-go makes it easy.

And the same friend has asked something more. He says, "It seems to me that it is part of nature's

intention to make it very difficult and to require man to go through ages of development before he reaches
it. Isn't there a divine purpose behind why it takes him so long to reach?"

Man's mind is very cunning. You can go on throwing responsibility on someone else: "It is nature's way

to make it hard." YOU are making it hard; it is not nature's way. Nature's way is always simple and easy.
Nature means natural, spontaneous, easy. In nature nothing is hard. Only man complicates things, makes

them hard and difficult. Nature is very easy-flowing. But you can deceive. You can say it is nature's way
that meditation is difficult: then you are relieved. Then it is not on your part and you cannot do anything. It
is nature's way so what can you do?

You can just wait, or you can go on doing whatsoever you are doing; you need not meditate. You have

thrown all responsibility on nature. But if this is really true, then meditation will happen. If you can really
throw all responsibility on nature -- remember, ALL -- then meditation will happen; then there is no need to
do anything. Feel miserable and know that it is nature's way. When you feel pain, do not ask for remedies;
know this is nature's way. If you can do this totally, there will be no need for meditation; meditation will
have already happened.

But you are cunning. Only with meditation will you say that this is nature's way and with nothing else.

With everything else you will struggle, you will make effort. If you are poor you will make every effort to
become rich, and you will not say that it is nature's way. You will not say, "When I become really capable,
nature will make me rich." You will not wait for nature.

If you are really honest, then leave EVERYTHING to nature. You need not meditate then, because this

itself, this leaving everything to nature, has become the deepest meditation possible. But if you are not
honest, then you can deceive so that whatsoever you want to do you will do, and whatsoever you do not
want to do you will throw on nature's shoulders.

Beware of this trick. YOU are doing it. I am ready: if you are totally throwing it to nature, then for you

nothing is needed. But if you are not ready to throw it totally, then be kind to yourself: do not throw
meditation. Do not say that nature has some inner work and so nature makes it hard. Nature is not making it
hard.

The same friend says, "Isn't there a divine purpose behind why it takes so long to reach?"
Not only are you throwing it on nature: you can make it look very good and divine -- as if there is some

divine purpose behind it and that is why you are not reaching the goal; that is why you are not attaining to
meditation; that is why samadhi is so difficult. No! YOU are creating barriers for the divine purpose. And in
a way, there can be no divine purpose because existence is purposeless. It is a play.

Purpose is human: you have purpose. But the existence cannot have any purpose. There is no sense in

having any purpose. Existence is flowing -- overflowing with its own energy. It is a festivity, not a purpose.
It is a constant celebration. The existence is enjoying itself in so many forms. There is no purpose, and
existence is not worried if you are not reaching to ecstasy. It is only your worry. If you are not reaching,
YOU will suffer. Existence is not suffering because of your not reaching and existence will not force you to
move into ecstasy. It is up to you.

Existence is a deep freedom. If you want to be in suffering, be in suffering. If you want to be in bliss, be

in bliss. It is your own choice. But it is too much for our minds to think that everything is our choice
because then we become responsible. If you come to think that you are the cause of your suffering, then you
will feel very bad. It always feels better to make someone else the cause of your suffering.

But, remember, if someone else is the cause of your suffering, you can never become free. Then there is

no liberation. But if you are the cause of your suffering, then liberation is within your hands; you can do
something and change it.

I tell you, you are the cause of your heaven and of your hell. If you are in hell, you have chosen it to be

so. And the moment you decide, you can come out of it. No one is going to prevent you; no one will say to
you, "Do not go." The gates are not closed against you. Really, there are no gates, and no devil is standing at
the door. You need not even have a passport to move out. It is simply your decision to be there.

You are in suffering because you have decided to be in suffering; you can come out of it the moment

you decide to come out. You can be in bliss if you decide to be in bliss. Your decision is your being. You
choose whatsoever you are. You have chosen it to be so; that is why it is so. Do not go on throwing
responsibilities on something else -- on nature, on God, on faith, on destiny. Do not go on throwing them.

But if you really feel that you cannot do anything, that you are helpless, then I say throw the TOTAL

responsibility. These are two ways. Throw the total responsibility; then you have nothing to do and
everything will happen, because the moment you throw the total responsibility, the ego is also thrown, the
ego cannot exist. If you give total responsibility to nature or to the divine force or to x y z, your ego is no
more there. And when the ego is not, the thing happens. Or, if you cannot throw total responsibility, if you
cannot surrender totally, if you cannot feel that you are totally helpless -- remember the word total -- then
you will have to do something to dissolve the ego; then effort will be needed. Do either this or that but do
not move in between. And do not try to travel in two boats. You will be in difficulty; you will never reach

anywhere.

This is my observation: if I say to people, "Leave everything to God," they say, "How can I leave? How

can I surrender? I do not know what God is. Unless I know, how can I leave everything to him?" They say,
"It is difficult." They say, "Please show us some way so that we can do something." If I say to them, "Do
this or that, follow this method and you will achieve," immediately they bring some objection. They say,
"Man is helpless. What can we do? We are so helpless -- just puppets in the hands of a destiny which is
unknown."

If I say to them, "Leave everything to destiny," they say it is impossible. If I say, "Do something," they

say it is impossible. The mind is cunning and always tries to escape. Be alert about it; only then can
something happen to you. Otherwise you can go on just wavering your whole life and nothing will happen.

You have wasted so many lives before. You are not here for the first time listening to something about

meditation; you have listened to it many times. It is not only that you are clever with me; you have been
clever many times before. You have listened to Buddha, you have listened to Jesus, you have listened to
Krishna. You were there -- with different faces, of course, but you were there. You are very old, ancient
ones, but your cunning is so deep that Buddhas fail; Christs come and go and you remain unperturbed. No
one can push you off your road. You continue; you bypass all.

So while talking to you or while leading you into meditative states, I never think that you are new ones.

You have done many things before but never with your full heart. And unless you are totally in anything,
nothing can happen. Be either totally with destiny, with the divine force, and then you are no more; or be
totally with a technique, with a method, so that the ego can be destroyed by and by, slowly. Method is a
slow thing; surrender is total and final. Surrender is possible in a single moment; method will take time. I
am giving you method because I know that you cannot surrender.

The third question:

BELOVED OSHO,
I HAVE ALWAYS HEARD YOU SPEAKING ABOUT SURRENDER, AND IT SEEMS TO ME THAT
SURRENDER IS THE ONLY IMPORTANT FACTOR IN ACHIEVING TRANSFORMATION. THEN HOW TO
SURRENDER? WHAT IS THE MEANING, METHOD AND PROCESS OF IT? AND WHAT CONTRIBUTION
DOES THE ACTIVE MEDITATION MAKE IN REACHING THE STATE OF SURRENDER?

The first thing to be understood about surrender is that you cannot ask how, because how brings the

method, how brings the technique. Surrender is enough unto itself; it needs no technique. Asking how to
surrender is asking how to love. And if you ask how to love, one thing is certain: love is not for you because
how can one ask how to love? And if someone is trained, whatsoever he comes to know about love will be
false. Training will make everything false.

It happened once that one young man used to come to me to learn how to love and I used to tell him,

"Go and do this and say this to the girl." And he would go and he would come and report back to me what
had happened. But he was always a failure. He tried and tried with many girls and he was always a failure
because something would always go wrong. He was ready and I would train him for something but life
never happens in that way. The girl would say something different and he was not ready to answer. Then he
would be in difficulty. He would come back and he would say, "You told me to answer this but she never
asked."

So I told that young man, "It is going to be very difficult unless I train you both. But then it will just

become a drama."

You cannot learn surrender. If you can do it, you can do it and there is nothing more to it. If you cannot

do it, leave it completely; then follow some method. Method doesn't need any surrender; method is a
substitute. Because you cannot surrender you have to do something, and by doing something the same
phenomenon will happen in a long process that can happen immediately in surrender.

Surrender means you are feeling that you are not capable of doing anything, so you surrender. It is a

total helplessness. You say, "I do not know." You say, "I am not capable of doing anything, so I surrender.
Now lead me wheresoever you would like to lead." And remember that this is going to be total. You cannot
ask after following two or three steps, "Where are you leading me?" You cannot say, "You are leading me to
some wrong path," because you have surrendered. Now you are no more.

Surrender has its own beauty but very rare souls, very strong souls, can surrender. Remember, ordinarily

it is the feeling that weaklings surrender. This is absolutely wrong. To surrender you need to be such a

strong person, very strong, because it is going to be such a total decision. And you cannot move backwards.
You cannot take it back; you cannot say, "Now I take my surrender back." It is unconditional. Surrender
cannot be conditional; you cannot say, "If this happens, only then I will follow you." If I move to the very
hell, you will follow me because it has been unconditional. You have given up your own decisions, now you
are not going to decide.

Surrender needs strong, absolutely strong souls. If the master says, "This is day," and you see it is night

-- but you have surrendered, you do not see now from your own eyes, you see from the master's eyes -- he
says, "This is day," you say, "Yes sir, this is day." You do not allow your ego to come in; you do not allow
your intellect to come in. You put aside everything. If you can do this -- there is no how to it, remember -- it
happens.

Surrender is not a doing; doing is contradictory. You cannot do it. Doing is contradictory to surrender.

Surrender is a happening. You can ask, "How does it happen?" Do not ask me how it is done. You can ask
me, "How does it happen?" It happens when you have tried and tried and failed and failed; when you have
tried every path and it has led nowhere; when you have tried your intellect in every way and it has always
led to some cul-de-sac; when you have tried to do whatsoever you can do and nothing has happened -- so
you have come to a conclusion that you are not enough, that you are helpless. When you have come to
conclude this, that you are helpless, in this helplessness surrender happens. Then you can surrender.

So the first thing: surrender has no 'how' about it -- no. It has no technique. It IS the technique itself; it

has no other technique. If you can do it, you can do it. If you cannot do, forget it: it is not for you. But do
not be worried, do not feel hopeless, because there are techniques -- you can try them. And if you try
techniques, there are two possibilities: either you will fail or you will succeed. If you succeed, there will be
no need to surrender; or you will fail, and then it will help to surrender.

Buddha tried for six years. He tried every method. One of his contemporaries, Mahavira, was also trying

-- in the same days, in the same time, in the same part of the world, in Bihar. These two greatest souls were
working for their enlightenment in the same period. Mahavira was working on certain techniques for twelve
years. Buddha was also working on similar techniques for six years. After six years Buddha came to
conclude that no technique can be helpful. Everything failed, so he surrendered. He surrendered to the
universe. He said, "Now I have nowhere to go. Now I have nothing to achieve. Now I lose my search.
Whatsoever happens, now I am not interested in the future in any way. I am neither for life nor against."

He was in such a total frustration that you cannot even say that he was hopeless because you can be

hopeless only when a certain hope is still hidden. You can feel hopeless because you still go on hoping. He
was not even hopeless. Hope was gone, even hopelessness was gone. He was simply without hope. The
future was no more there; he was a total failure. Buddha was a total failure after six years and in that total
failure surrender happened. He relaxed under the bodhi tree that night without any desires -- not even for
nirvana, samadhi, ecstasy, God. He had no desire at all.

Desire shows that you are still not totally a failure: you still desire, you still hope, you still feel

something is possible. But Buddha came to conclude that nothing is possible. He relaxed under that bodhi
tree because now he could not be tense. When you are really a failure, how can you be tense? A man who is
successful can be tense, a man who is trying to succeed can be tense, a man who has failed but who still
hopes can be tense. But a man who has failed so totally that now there is no hope, who doesn't even feel
frustrated or hopeless but who has simply left the whole game, he cannot be tense. There was no worry.
How can worry exist? There was no ego; ego exists only when you are trying to succeed.

Suddenly that morning when he awoke from the night there was no dream, no desire, no idea of the

tomorrow. And in the morning when he opened his eyes, his eyes were totally vacant. There were no clouds
of desire and dreams. He saw the last star setting and as the star disappeared, he disappeared. And when
there was no star on the horizon he was also not there. It is said that he laughed. He laughed within himself
because he had tried so much and nothing had happened, and now he was not trying at all and everything
had happened. He was in ecstasy. He was in such ecstasy that he is said to have said, "The nirvana has
happened, the enlightenment has happened -- and such an enlightenment was never known before!"

Then he tried to preach effortlessness, but no one would listen to him. How can you believe that without

effort everything can happen? And it had not happened without effort really. Effort had been there. Through
effort the failure had happened and through failure this ultimate state of consciousness.

Mahavira succeeded -- the other seeker in the same part of the world. He was doing certain techniques

and he succeeded. Through techniques he succeeded in dissolving his ego. That is why Jainas and Buddhists
are bonafide enemies. They cannot come to any reconciliation, they cannot come to any compromise,

because they are so absolutely opposite. Mahavira succeeded through technique, so the whole teaching of
Mahavira is of method. Buddha succeeded through failure, so his whole teaching is of effortlessness: "Do
not do anything."

These are the two dimensions. Both are good, but my suggestion is to first try to follow technique. If

you succeed, it is okay. If you fail, then surrender will be possible. Then it too is okay. I am for both; that is
why I look contradictory.

One young man reached me today and he said, "You are so contradictory that it is impossible to follow

you. And you contradict yourself so much that you just confuse me." So I told him not to listen to me -- to
just close his eyes and not listen to me. "Just meditate. Because if you feel that whatsoever I say is
contradictory... and you will feel! Your intellect will feel. It IS contradictory.

Unless you come to know that all the contradictory ways can lead to the same point, you will not be able

to feel the inner consistency in the contradictions. They are contradictory and they are not. They are because
what Buddha says is consistent, and what Mahavira says is consistent, but I am saying both things
simultaneously. It has never been done really, so it looks contradictory. But you need not think about it; you
just follow one thing.

If you can surrender, surrender; do not ask how. If you ask how then you are not meant to surrender yet.

You are asking for a method, so then follow method. Either you will succeed or you will fail: both are good.
Through both you will reach.

The Supreme Doctrine

Chapter #10

Chapter title: The Eternal Play of Existence

13 July 1973 am in Mt Abu Meditation Camp

Archive code: 7307130

ShortTitle: DOCTRN10

Audio:

Yes

Video:

No

Length: 119 mins

INVOCATION

HE KNOWS IT WHO KNOWS IT NOT, AND HE KNOWS IT NOT WHO KNOWS IT. TO THE MAN OF TRUE
KNOWLEDGE IT IS THE UNKNOWN, WHILE TO THE IGNORANT IT IS THE KNOWN.
INDEED, HE ATTAINS IMMORTALITY WHO REALIZES IT IN AND THROUGH EVERY BODH --
PULSATION OF KNOWLEDGE AND AWARENESS. THROUGH THE ATMAN HE OBTAINS STRENGTH
AND VIGOR AND THROUGH ITS KNOWLEDGE, IMMORTALITY.
FOR ONE WHO REALIZES IT HERE, IN THIS WORLD, THERE IS TRUE LIFE. FOR ONE WHO DOES NOT
SO REALIZE IT, GREAT IS THE LOSS. DISCOVERING THE ATMAN IN EVERY SINGLE BEING, THE WISE
ONES, DYING TO THIS WORLD OF SENSE-EXPERIENCE, BECOME IMMORTAL.

Knowledge of the Brahman is impossible but knowing is possible. Knowledge and knowing are

basically different. A very subtle difference has to be understood. Knowing is always in the present,
knowledge is of the past. Whenever you say, "I have known," it means that the experience has become past,
it has become part of your memory. When you say, "I am in a process of knowing," the experience is still
continuing; you are still in the experience. It is not part of your memory. Your being is still involved in it.

As far as the world is concerned, the knowing stops. It becomes knowledge. That accumulated

knowledge is known as science. Whatsoever man has known becomes science. Science is knowledge.
Religion never becomes science because religion is an eternally continuing process of knowing. You never
come to a point where you can say, "I have known." The Brahman never becomes the past; it is always the
present. The ultimate cannot be reduced to the past; it cannot be reduced to knowledge. It is always a
riverlike flow of knowing.

So you cannot say you have experienced God because that means it is a past thing. It means you have

transcended it -- that you have already experienced and gone beyond. You cannot go beyond God, so you
can never say meaningfully that you have known, that you have experienced. You cannot put him into the
past; he cannot be made part of your memory. You can be in a process of experiencing but it is never
experience; it is always experiencing. A lived process is never a dead memory.

It is just like this: you cannot say, "I have breathed." You are breathing. Breathing cannot become past.

If it becomes the past you will be no more. There will be no one to say that he breathed. Breathing is always
a continuous process. You are always breathing -- it is in the present. You cannot say, "I have lived,"
because then who are you? You are life, but you cannot say, "I have lived." Life is a continuous process. It
is always here and now in this very moment. The ultimate means the ultimate life, the ultimate breathing,
the ultimate experiencing, the ultimate knowing.

So the first thing to be understood is that the Brahman cannot be reduced to knowledge. So whosoever

says, "I have known," the Upanishads say is ignorant. He is insensitive to the great mystery of life.
Whosoever says that he has known has not known. He may have known through the scriptures; he may have
known through others; he may have gathered information. But he has not known, because one who knows
will know that God can never be reduced to knowledge. He remains a process.

God is not a thing. A thing can be known. God is a process. A thing means something which has

stopped. A process means something that goes on and on and on. In the ordinary mind we always think of
God as a thing. God is not a thing, it is a flow, a continuum. It goes on eternally, never stops, never can stop.
Nonstopping is the very nature of it, so how can you know a process? The moment you say, "I have
known," you have stopped -- and the process goes on. You have stopped in your knowledge and the process
goes on: you are lost, your contact is lost. Now you are no longer in touch with the process.

You will have to move with the process. You cannot stop. Stopping is not possible with the divine. You

can stop but the divine cannot stop. And when you stop and the river goes on, you have lost contact with it;
you are no more in living touch.

So those who say that they have known have lost contact. Really, they have not known. They have

gathered information. Intellectually they have conceived of something but they have not lived, because one
who lives will come to know this is a river, eternally going on and on. You have to flow with it. A single
moment of stopping and the contact is lost. You can never say, "I have known." You can only say, "I am
knowing."

Knowing is an open thing; knowledge is closed; knowledge has come to a full stop. Knowing is a

growing thing, it grows. So knowledge is dead, it has already stopped. It is not breathing now, the blood is
not flowing in it; the heart has stopped beating, it is dead. Knowledge is a corpse and if you carry
knowledge you are carrying a corpse, a dead body. That is why pundits, scholars, those who think they
know, are dead men. Even sinners have entered the divine, but it is unheard of that any pundit has ever
entered the divine. A sinner can enter, but a man who is knowledgeable, who thinks he knows, cannot enter.

In the eyes of the Upanishads the real sin is knowledge, because that is the only barrier. But it is very

subtle, and you have to understand the meaning. Knowing is allowed; knowledge is not allowed. Move with
the divine moment to moment, alive, in touch, open. Do not say, "I have known." Simply say that, "I am
aware, experiencing, knowing. Everything is open, and I do not know what is going to be revealed the next
moment, so I cannot close, I cannot say that now it is finished and the end has come." There is no last
chapter, there is no last page. The scripture is endless. You cannot close it and every moment something
new is revealed because the divine or God or Brahman is every moment new, fresh, young. Only we get old,
and we get old because of knowledge.

It is not simply the body which gets old. The body will get old but your consciousness need not get old.

If it gets old, it means that you have gathered knowledge. Then the weight of knowledge makes you old.
Otherwise your eyes will remain innocent, virgin. You will be open, and that openness is virginity. You will
be seeking and searching. You will be inquiring and meditating and contemplating. You will be always
ready for the new to happen because it is happening every moment. God is never old. If God is old then
some day he will have to die because oldness leads to death.

The Brahman is always young, evergreen. Oldness is not known there, that is why there is no death to it.

Existence is always green, alive, pulsating. With knowledge you become old. The moment you say, "I have
known," you have stopped knowing. You think that you have experienced and the experiencing stops. From
that moment on you are not growing. You are a dead seed.

The Upanishads believe in knowing, not in knowledge. What is this knowing? And what is the process

of knowing? With knowledge you gather the past. In knowing you disperse it -- you go on dispersing it.
Whatsoever is known must be thrown away so that you are open again to know anew. You must die to the
past; only then can you be alive to the present.

We all live in the past -- that which is no more, that which has gone, that which is dead. We live in that

past; that is why we are so dead. Life is always in the present and mind is always in the past; that is why
mind cannot know life. There can be no meeting ground. There is no common ground where mind can meet
life. Hence, the Upanishads are against mind.

Mind is always the memory -- that which you have lived, that which is past, that which is no more.

Mind is just the past dust gathered upon you. Throw it away. Wash it away so that you are fresh, young, and
you can meet the present, the ever young -- the ever young Brahman.

In knowing, the past has to be constantly renounced. This is the basic renunciation. Die to the past so

that you can be alive in the present. You cannot do both. If you are alive in the past, then you will be dead in
the present. If you want to be alive in the present, be dead to the past. Each moment go on throwing the past
dust. Do not allow it to gather. Go on renouncing it, go on throwing it. It is of no use. You have already
used it, now it is just a dead shell. The bird has flown away from it. Do not go on collecting dead shells.
They will become the imprisonment; they will hamper you. They will become so weighty that they will not
allow you to move.

To me, a sannyasin, one who has renounced, means not that he has re-nounced wealth, not that he has

renounced his house, not that he has renounced family, but one who has renounced the past -- because that
is the basic wealth. That is your family; you go on living with the dead.

I have heard once it happened that Jesus was passing. It was just morning and the sun was about to rise,

and he saw a fisherman throwing his net on the lake. So he spoke to that fisherman. He came near him and
told him, "Why are you wasting your life just catching fishes? Follow me and I will show you how to catch
the kingdom of God in your net."

The fisherman looked back. There was a different type of light in the eyes of Jesus. The man was

hypnotized. He threw down his net and followed Jesus. But just as they were passing out of the village a
man came running and asked the fisherman, "Where are you going? Your father has died." His father was
ill, very old. Any moment it was expected that he would die.

So the fisherman said to Jesus, "Jesus, allow me a few days so that I can go back and pay my respects to

the old man who is dead and do all that is needed and expected from a son."

Jesus said, "You need not go. The dead will bury the dead." To Jesus the whole village was dead. So he

said, "They will bury the dead; you need not worry about it."

Why did Jesus say that the dead will bury the dead? Because all those who live in the past, they are

dead. Only those who live in the present are alive. Life means the present, the here and now. It is a very
fleeting moment. You can catch it only when you are totally unburdened; otherwise you will miss. If your
mind is moving toward the past you will miss the fleeting moment of life. It is so momentary, it is so
fleeting, that if you are attached to the past you will go on missing it.

And this is happening. Even when you are not thinking of the past, you are thinking of the past reflected

in the future. But you are never in the present, that much is certain. Either you are in the past which is no
more, or in the future which is yet to be. Both are not, both are nonexistential. One is dead and one is not yet
born. And whatsoever you think of the future is just a reflected past, a projected past, because what can you
think of the future? You can think of the tomorrow only in terms of the yesterday because you do not know
any other language.

You loved someone yesterday, now you think to love him tomorrow. It is going to be just the past again

repeated with some modification. And those modifications also come from past experience. Nothing new
can be projected into the future. Only the past can be projected. So you move like a shuttle between the past
and the future, and in this constant movement the fleeting present, that which is life, is missed. And only
through life can you enter the Brahman.

The Upanishads say do not be attached to knowledge, do not be attached to memory, do not be attached

to the past. Go on dying to it so that you are ever young, fresh, virgin. Again and again you are open. No
past becomes an imprisonment around you. You always move on and leave the dead shells to the past.
The sutra says:

HE KNOWS IT WHO KNOWS IT NOT....

He who has not made it a knowledge -- only he knows it who is still in the process of knowing, who is

still searching and inquiring, who is still not closed, who is still going onward, still flowing. And this is
going to be eternally so. No one ever reaches the goal; no one can reach the goal. Life really has no goal. It
is just an eternal play -- beginningless, endless. Man creates the goal. Why?

Man creates the goal because then he can be at ease. The goal is achieved and now you can relax. Now

you can be dead; now you are not needed. Life really has no goal. It is just an eternal play -- beginningless,
endless. Man creates the goal. Life has no goal. It creates many goals, but those goals are just temporary.
Every goal is just a means to a further goal, and ultimately there is no goal; otherwise the Brahman would
have stopped at any time, because the goal must have been reached.

Existence has been existing beginninglessly. Any time it would have happened that the goal was

achieved, the goal would have stopped. It has not happened so; it will never happen. 'Goal' is a human
creation. Life is goal-less; that is why it is eternal. If there is a goal then life cannot be eternal, because
when the goal is achieved life is dead. All goals are just temporary. When you can realize this you have
realized the Brahman -- the purposeless energy moving goal-lessly, moving everywhere but not moving to
somewhere, moving toward nowhere. The movement is beautiful in itself; it is blissful in itself. The bliss is
not somewhere in the goal, it is here and now, just in the movement, just in the pulsation of being alive.

When you look at a Buddha sitting under a bodhi tree, or you look at a Jesus on the cross, or you look at

Mahavira standing under the skies, a question must arise in your mind about what they are doing. It cannot
be conceived that Buddha would be thinking about some business -- he has no business. He is not thinking
about his family -- there is no family. He is not thinking about the future -- what can he think about the
future? What is a Buddha doing under a bodhi tree? He is not doing anything. He simply is. The very
happening of life, the breathing in and out, the very pulsation of being alive, is blissful. He is not doing
anything else. He is simply in bliss.

But whenever you think about bliss, you always think as if bliss is something which he possesses in his

hand. It is not something, it is just a w#ay of existing -- the right way of existing. There is no past and no
future. Just under the bodhi tree... THIS very moment, the Buddha is simply alive. The heart is beating, the
breath is coming in and out, the blood is circulating, and everything is alive, pulsating. He is not moving
anywhere, he simply IS. In this isness is bliss.

Hence, the emphasis continuously that when you do not desire you will be blissful. Why? -- because

desire leads you somewhere else. Desire does not allow you to be here. Desire says go on somewhere else;
the goal is there in the future. Desire creates the future and forces you toward the future. When you are
nondesiring, when there is no desire, you are here and now. You are under the bodhi tree, you have become
a buddha.

A buddha means a state of consciousness -- a state of consciousness which is not going anywhere to

achieve any goal. Because of this realization, Buddha said, "There is no God." Just because he was so
compassionate toward you he said there is no God, because if he s#ays that God is then you will make a
desire out of him. You will want to achieve him. You would like to reach God, you would like to know
God, so you will create a desire.

So Buddha says there is no God, so drop all spiritual desire. Not that there is no God, but he says this

just to help you drop all desiring and all future. Otherwise you go on changing the future. Sometimes the
desire is worldly, sometimes it becomes spiritual, but the desiring remains the same.

Buddha says there is no MOKSHA; there is no state of total freedom somewhere in heaven. There is no

moksha. Not that there is no moksha, but he says this just to help you; otherwise you will start desiring
moksha, the liberated state -- and desiring is the bondage. So when you desire moksha, liberation, you are
still in bondage. He says this just to help you to drop all desiring so that you can be here and now.

People go on coming to Buddha and they ask, "What will happen when we die?"
Buddha says, "Nothing will happen. You will simply die."
They are asking him to create a future even beyond death. They are not satisfied; this much future is not

enough. They want some more future beyond death so that they can project their minds more and then they

can desire and they can plan what to do after death. They go on insisting. In every village where Buddha
moves they go on insisting, "What will happen to an enlightened one, to YOU when you die?"

Buddha says, "Nothing will happen. I will simply die. As the flame of a lamp ceases to be, I will cease."
They are not satisfied; they feel uneasy. They say, "But where will the flame go? Will it meet the

Brahman? Will it become cosmic? What will happen to the enlightened soul?"

Buddha is hard. He says, "Nothing. Just a flame is put out. Do you ask where the flame has gone? No

one asks where the flame has gone because everyone knows it has just ceased."

The word nirvana means cessation of the flame. He never uses the word moksha, he never uses the word

heaven, he never talks about paradise, he never uses any word that can create future. He simply says
nirvana. Nirvana means that the flame ceases to be. Do not ask what happens, "Why? Does the flame really
cease to be?" It never ceases to be but just through his compassion he is telling a lie because the truth will
create a desire in you.

If he says there will be bliss -- SATCHITANANDA -- if he says there will be bliss, existence, and

consciousness, or if he says there will be a kingdom of God, then a desire will be created. And if the desire
is there, there is not going to be any kingdom of God. Cessation of desire will bring you here and now.
There is no possibility to move in the future; you are thrown back to the present. And once you are thrown
back to the present you are in paradise. You will be in the divine, you will become one with the Brahman.
The Upanishads say:

HE KNOWS IT WHO KNOWS IT NOT.

Do not create any memory; do not help to create the past. Go on dropping it. You have used it, why go

on carrying it? Do not make it a knowledge.

People come to me and they say, "Yesterday the meditation was just wonderful." You have become

nonmeditative because of yesterday's meditation. Now that man will go on looking for yesterday to be
repeated today. He will wait. He will not be meditating; he will not be totally in it. Part of his mind will be
looking backwards to see when that will happen again -- and it will not happen. His mind was totally in the
moment; now it is not. Now he is looking backwards; he has brought in a new thing. Now the situation is
not the same. He is not totally in it; he is expecting a result. It will not happen and then he will come to me
and say, "What has gone wrong? Yesterday it happened but today it didn't happen and I am feeling very
frustrated."

The mechanism is simple. Yesterday it could happen because you had no past about it. Remember, you

had no past about it, no expectation about it. You couldn't project any future because you didn't know
anything. You were ignorant, so it happened. You were simple, innocent, in the moment -- just doing it
without having any expectation for a result because the result was unknown.

Now it is known. It has happened, it has become the past. Now it is your knowledge. Now this

knowledge will become the barrier. Now you can do whatsoever you like but it is not going to happen.
Knowledge becomes the barrier; the past becomes the barrier to the present. So if it happened yesterday,
forget it. Drop that yesterday.

Remember one thing more: you will be frustrated if it is not happening. And you will be frustrated even

if it is going to happen because it is just going to be a repetition. You will get fed up. You will get fed up
even with your meditation if it goes on repeating, being the same. Drop the past because if the past is there
it is not going to happen. And even if sometimes it happens, it is just going to be a repetition of the past and
you will get bored. In both ways the past goes on interfering with the present.

Why do you feel it is a repetition? You feel it is a repetition because you go on comparing with the past.

If you drop the past, it is always new; it is never a repetition. Repetition means you are constantly
comparing it with the past experience. Drop the past completely and you will be opened to the present. Then
whatsoever happens will be new and you will never get bored.

Everyone is bored because of this nonsense of bringing in the past again and again. You kissed your

beloved yesterday and now you kiss again and you compare. The very beauty of the kiss is gone because it
is just a repetition. Sooner or later you will get fed up. Sooner or later you would like to escape from your
beloved. She will look like an enemy because now she has become a situation where everything looks like a
repetition. Forget the past. It is killing you. It is killing your love, it is killing your life, it is killing every
possibility. Drop the past. Do not make it a knowledge. Be fresh again and again. Every moment move and
do not carry the past.

HE KNOWS IT WHO KNOWS IT NOT AND HE KNOWS IT NOT WHO KNOWS IT

who says that "I know." This is the indication that he has stopped knowing. Knowledge is complete; the

book is closed. This man is dead. A dead man cannot be in contact with a live force.

TO THE MAN OF TRUE KNOWLEDGE IT IS THE UNKNOWN, WHILE TO THE IGNORANT IT IS THE
KNOWN.

Go anywhere on the earth: there are churches, temples, GURUDWARAS, mosques. Everyone is

worshipping there; the whole earth seems to be religious. Everyone 'knows' about God and life is such a
misery, such a suffering. Everyone 'knows' about God -- not only knows: everyone argues about him.

There are two types of ignorant people: one who says God is and they argue for him, and another who

says God is not and they argue against. But both believe that they know. Theists, atheists, both believe that
they know. In one thing they both agree -- that they have knowledge. Not only this: they try to prove that
they have the true knowledge.

The Upanishads say that only ignorant people can claim that they know -- that the divine has become

known; that the mystery is solved; that now there is no mystery but a theory, a philosophy, a scripture; that
now there is no mystery and everything is known. Only ignorant people can do this. They can kill the
mystery by asserting that the ultimate is known. Those who are wise will insist that the mystery remains a
mystery. Even if you come to face it, encounter it, even if you come to meet it, the mystery is not solved. On
the contrary, it is deepened more. It becomes more mysterious, it goes on becoming more and more
mysterious. The more you know, the more it becomes unknown.

This is the mystery of religious knowing. The more you know it, the more it becomes unknown -- the

more you feel how impossible it is to know, how difficult it is to know. The more you know the
impossibility of this, the more you become aware of your incapacity, your helplessness, your ignorance. The
more and more God becomes unknown -- then the nearer you approach. And when someone really enters
the divine, he comes to know that it is unknowable -- not only unknown. Then he comes to realize that there
is no possibility to know. What does it mean? It means there is no possibility to be finished with it. It is
going to be an eternal concern. You cannot be finished with it! You cannot say, "Now I will drop this
religious inquiry, I can drop this religiousness. The thing is finished." No, it cannot be finished.

People come to me and they go on asking, "When will it happen that the search ceases, that we reach,

that the ultimate happens?" They are in such a hurry! It is not going to end anywhere, remember. It is NOT
going to end. This quest is eternal. You will go on growing. You will go on growing into deeper awareness,
into deeper bliss. But still, something always remains hidden, and you go on uncovering it. But it is never
uncovered completely; it cannot be so. This is how the very nature of the ultimate reality is.

But teachers go on saying, "Do not worry. Sooner or later you will reach." I myself go on saying it.

People come to me and they say, "We have been meditating for so long. When will it happen?" I say, "Wait!
Soon it will happen." But these are all lies. If I say that it is not going to happen ever, you will simply drop
the whole effort; you will feel hopeless. So I will go on saying that it is going to happen.

It is happening already but it is not going to happen in such a way that the journey ends. And one day

you yourself will become aware of the beauty of this non-ending process, and you will realize what an ugly
question you were asking. You were asking how to end all this. The very question is ugly and absurd. You
do not know but what you are asking is against yourself -- because if it ends, you end with it. If there is no
search, nothing to be revealed, nothing to be loved, nothing to be known, nothing to be entered, how can
you be? If you were in such a state, you would want to commit suicide.

Bertrand Russell has somewhere joked. He said, "I cannot believe in the Hindu conception of liberation

-- of moksha -- because," he says, "in moksha, the Hindu conception of liberation, you will be freed of
everything: nothing is to be done, nothing will happen. You will be sitting and sitting and sitting under
bodhi trees, and nothing will happen because everything has ceased." So Russell says, "That will be too
much. It will become a burden, and the liberation will become a new type of bondage. Everyone will get fed
up, and everyone will start praying: Send us back to the earth or even to hell. Even hell will be better
because there will be something there to be done, there will be some news. But in moksha there will be no
news, no events, no happenings. Just think: eternally no happenings, no movement -- what type of moksha
will this be?"

Really, when Hindus talk about this moksha, or Jainas talk about this moksha, it does not mean that such

a moksha exists or such a state exists. This is just to help you, because YOU cannot conceive of the eternal

process. So they say, "Yes, do not be worried. Sooner or later everything will stop and then you will not
have to do anything." But you do not know what type of misery this will be. This will be more miserable
than the earth is.

Moksha is not a static thing. It is a dynamic process. And moksha is not some geographical place. It is a

way of looking at things, it is an attitude. If you can be alive moment to moment, you will never ask when
all this is going to finish. The very question shows that you are not alive and you are not enjoying life as it
is. If you enjoy life, you will not ask when it is going to end, you will not ask when you are going to be
freed of it. Then you are already free. In the very enjoyment the freedom has come. Whether it ends or not is
not a concern at all. If it ends it is good. If it doesn't end it is also good. Then you accept it totally.
The sutra says:

TO THE MAN OF TRUE KNOWLEDGE IT IS THE UNKNOWN, WHILE TO THE IGNORANT IT IS THE
KNOWN.

This seems contradictory. It is only ignorance which can claim such a thing. And the more stupid the

mind, then the more arrogant will be the claim, the more dogmatic will be the claim.

But even that dogmatic claim may impress you. There are religious fanatics all over the world who go

on claiming. And their claims impress people because just by their aggression, their dogmatism, their
absolute definiteness, you are overpowered. You think this man must have achieved because he is claiming
so boldly. You are so uncertain about yourself that anyone, any stupid man, can claim anything with
certainty and you will be impressed. But remember this: only for ignorance does such certainty exist. A man
who is wise cannot be dogmatically certain. He cannot assert anything absolutely; he cannot assert anything
in an imperative way.

For example, Mahavira: if you ask him anything he will look very uncertain. He is not, but he is a wise

man. If you ask him, "Is there God?" he will say, "Maybe, maybe not." This is the mind that doesn't claim --
because if he says, "He is," it becomes a claim; and if he says, "He is not," it still becomes a claim. He says,
"Maybe, perhaps." SYAD is his word -- perhaps, maybe.

You will not be impressed by him. That is why such a great man was born and there are so few

followers; Jainas are not more than thirty LAKHS. Twenty-five centuries have passed. Even if one Adam
and Eve were converted by Mahavira they would have created such a number. Only three million people in
twenty-five centuries -- and they too are Jainas only by birth, because to be a Jaina means to be in the
attitude of perhaps, maybe.

Why does Mahavira go on saying maybe, whatsoever you ask? Even if you ask if there is a soul, he

says, "Maybe, maybe not." Why this insistence? Because he never claims knowledge and he allows
everything to remain unknown -- that is why the insistence on maybe because then things remain unknown,
uncertain, vague, and you can inquire. When everything is certain, inquiry ceases. If he says, "Yes -- there is
a God, there is soul, there is bliss," inquiry has stopped.

Now what can you do? Either you can follow him or not follow him but he says, "Maybe." He leaves

everything open. That is the meaning of syad: everything is open. He doesn't force anything upon you. He
doesn't say yes dogmatically, he doesn't say no, because his aggression may impress itself upon you. Just
listening to him may become fatal to you. And Mahavira is such a person that you will be impressed, you
will be magnetized just listening to him. If he says, "There is," it may become a knowledge to you. You will
go on believing that there is, and that will be destructive. To create knowledge is to be destructive.

But only those who are very sensitive can understand Mahavira. Those who are insensitive, ignorant,

stupid, will think, "This man doesn't know. Our village pundit is better. At least he says, 'Yes, God is, and I
can prove it. I can give you proofs from literature -- from the Vedas, the Upanishads. I can argue that God is
and I can convince you.' And this man says, 'Maybe.' What does it mean? Has he known or not?" People go
on asking Mahavira, "If you have known, then why not say yes? Or if you have come to know that there is
no God, then why not say no? Be clear!"

Why do you ask for clarity? You ask for clarity so that you can follow blindly. You ask for clarity so

that nothing is left for you to work out. You are lazy, so you ask for clarity. Mahavira will not give you
clarity. Really, whenever you come across such a person as Mahavira he will create more confusion in you
because out of confusion inquiry is born. Out of certainty comes only ignorance.

This sutra says that it -- the ultimate -- is the unknown to the wise, to those who know, WHILE TO THE

IGNORANT IT IS THE KNOWN. Don't be too certain. Remain uncertain. Uncertainty means fluidity;
uncertainty means every alternative is possible. You are not a fixed entity. The future is not going to be just

a repetition of the past. Something new is possible every moment. Remain vague. Do not insist on
consistencies. Even if there is apparently a contradiction, do not try to choose in haste. Wait, weigh, and
even in the contradiction try to find something which joins the two opposites. That third thing will be nearer
to truth than any polarity.

The whole emphasis is to remain in a state of receptivity for the unknown to happen to you. Be

sensitive, fluid, impressionable, as if some guest is to come and you are waiting. The door is open. Even the
breeze passing through the trees or the breeze passing through the dead leaves... you jump to the door. The
guest may have come; you are alert.

The guest has not come yet. You are simply waiting. In this alertness, one comes to know the ultimate

core of reality. The guest never comes really. He is always coming, he is always coming -- coming and
coming and coming. He is always nearer and nearer and nearer, closer and closer, but he never really comes.
You always remain in waiting. This waiting is beautiful. It is bliss -- if you can wait. But then you need a
very sensitive mind. Mediocre, stupid minds won't be of any help there. A stupid mind will say, "Now come
in; otherwise I am going to close the door and rest. I have waited long."

There is one poem by Rabindranath Tagore, one of the most beautiful ever written. The poem is known

as "The King of the Night." There is one temple, a big temple, with hundreds of priests to serve the deity
there. One night it happens that the chief priest has a dream. He dreams that the king, the deity, has
appeared to him and says, "Tonight I am coming." He awakes feeling very disturbed. He is very worried
about whether this dream is just a dream or a vision: "Is this just dreaming, my mind dreaming? Or is it
really an intimation? Is the deity, the god of the temple, really to come? Or is it just my own imagination?"

He is afraid to tell the others because they will think he has gone mad. They will say, "The deity has

never come. We have always been worshipping the stone deity since the temple was built and he has never
come. You have been dreaming. You have fallen prey to your own imagination." But then he is afraid also
that if he doesn't speak up and suddenly the deity comes and they are not prepared to receive, then what will
happen? So he thinks it is better to be foolish and speak.

So in the morning he gathers all the priests and he says, "The deity has appeared in a dream and says

this night he is coming: 'Wait and be ready to receive me.' "

They all start laughing, and they say, "This is a dream. Do not believe in dreams; do not be foolish. If

the news spreads, then the people will laugh if the deity doesn't come."

So they decide that they should not tell anybody but they should prepare just in case. So they clean the

whole temple. They prepare everything. But they know that this is just a dream, so it is halfhearted, it is just
in case. They do everything -- but it is not with love, it is not with waiting. They already know this is a
dream. The dream has not opened them. They are knowers and they know the history: it has never
happened. They know the scriptures and they are great scholars, so they say, "It has never happened and it is
not going to happen."

Scholars always think that the future is just the past repeated again and again, it is never new. But still,

in order not to take a chance they prepare. They clean, they decorate; much food is prepared for the coming
god. But they know that this is for them also. This is for them ONLY; the god is not coming. So their hearts
are not ready, only the temple is ready. And when the hearts are not ready, what can a temple do? So they
wait. Night falls, it becomes dark. The road is dead, no one is moving, everyone around has gone to sleep.

Then they say, "It is enough. We have waited long just for a dream. We are foolish. Now we must eat

the food that we have prepared. The whole day has been an unnecessary fast." So they eat and they enjoy,
and then they fall asleep. They are tired from the whole day's work of cleaning and decoration, so they fall
asleep.

Just at midnight they hear in their sleep that a chariot is coming near the temple. The noise comes; one

priest hears it and he says, "It seems the king, the god, has come. I hear the wheels of the chariot making
noise."

Somebody else says, "Do not be stupid and do not disturb our sleep. We have been waiting too long; it is

enough. Now do not disturb." So they fall asleep again. Then someone hears footsteps. Someone is coming
up the steps of the temple -- the temple has many steps.

Someone again says, half asleep, "It seems the king has come. Someone is coming up to the door -- and

the very sound of the feet is so qualitatively different that it cannot be that of a man."

But then the chief priest himself says, "Do not be foolish! Do not disturb us the whole night. We have

been working the whole day. If he had to come he should have come by the evening. No need -- it has never
been heard that he comes at midnight."

Then someone knocks at the door and someone hears again that someone is knocking on the door. Then

a priest becomes absolutely mad and says, "Stop completely! This is nothing but a breeze striking on the
door." So they sleep.

In the morning they all weep and cry and scream because the chariot had come. There are marks on the

road, and the god had come up to the temple. On the steps in the dust there are footprints. But now nothing
can be done. The moment, the opportunity, is lost.

This is the whole situation. Really, he is always coming, his chariot is always near the door. He is

knocking continuously but you are closed. Be open -- that is the basic message of the Upanishads. Do not be
knowledgeable. Do not cling to the past, to the history, to the memory. Be open and wait for the unknown to
happen. And whenever it happens do not try to make it known. Whatsoever happens, throw it away and be
ready again. Something new will happen again. The Brahman remains unknown continuously.

INDEED, HE ATTAINS IMMORTALITY WHO REALIZES IT IN AND THROUGH EVERY BODH --
PULSATION OF KNOWLEDGE AND AWARENESS.

No knowledge is ultimate. Every knowledge is just a pulsation -- just a pulsation, a vibration. Do not

make any vibration the ultimate. In deep meditation you will come to feel a great silence: this is just a
pulsation. Do not think this is Brahman. Brahman is always more. Whatsoever happens, he is always more.
Do not identify any happening with the Brahman; otherwise you will stop.

In meditation, many times a deep bliss will happen to you; you will be washed away. But do not say this

is the Brahman because the moment you say this is Brahman you are closed. It is just a pulsation of BODH,
just a pulsation of knowing, just a pulsation of consciousness, but just a wave. Never make any wave the
ocean. Remember, when you make a wave the ocean it has become knowledge; then you are closed. Let
every wave be just a wave and wait for the ocean.

And remember, the ocean never comes; it is always the waves which are coming. The ocean comes

through the waves, but it is always the waves which are coming. The ocean never comes. So do not fix
yourself and do not say this wave is the ocean. The moment you say it you are closed.

Many people have reached deep ecstasies and then they stop because then they say, "This is Brahman;

the ultimate has been achieved." Remember, it is never achieved. It is simply achievable but never achieved;
approachable but never approached.

The journey remains and it is beautiful that the journey remains. Whatsoever knowing comes to you, the

Upanishads say that it is just a pulsation of knowledge and awareness. And if you can feel this pulsation of
knowledge and awareness, you will attain immortality. Why? You become mortal, you become prone to
death, because you cling to the dead -- the dead past. If you do not cling to the past there is no death for you,
it cannot happen. The body will disappear but that is not death. It becomes a death because you have
become too much obsessed with the body -- because you have lived in the body in the past.

One person has lived a hundred years in his body. In that hundred years' experience of living in the body

he has become obsessed with the body. Now he thinks that he is the body. This hundred years of routine,
habit, has created this false notion that he is the body. That is why he feels that death is coming.

Children are less afraid of death than old men. Why? -- because they are still new to the body. It has not

become their experience and knowledge. They are fresh. Children can play with snakes without any fear.
They can play with poison, they can move in any danger. They are not afraid. Why? -- because they are still
fresh to this new abode. They are not clinging to it too much. It has not yet become a past. But sooner or
later, when they have lived in it for many years, they will cling to it. Then they will be afraid. Then they will
become afraid of death because in death the body will die and they have come to feel that they are the body.

A person who lives moment to moment, who goes on dying to the past, is never attached to anything.

Attachment comes from the accumulated past. If you can be unattached to the past every moment, then you
are always fresh, young, just born. You pulsate with life and that pulsation gives you immortality. You are
immortal, only unaware of the fact.

INDEED, HE ATTAINS IMMORTALITY WHO REALIZES IT IN AND THROUGH EVERY BODH. THROUGH
THE ATMAN HE OBTAINS STRENGTH AND VIGOR, AND THROUGH ITS KNOWLEDGE, IMMORTALITY.

The more you know life, the inner life, the atman, then the more you know that you are immortal. There

is not going to be any death: you are deathless.

FOR ONE WHO REALIZES IT HERE, IN THIS WORLD, THERE IS TRUE LIFE.

So do not hanker after any other life; do not hanker for something to happen after death. If it cannot

happen here it will not happen ever. If it can happen it can happen here and now. This earth, this life is the
present. Do not condemn it for another life. There is no other life. Life is always HERE; life is always in
this moment. Do not postpone it because through postponing you may miss the opportunity.

FOR ONE WHO REALIZES IT HERE THERE IS TRUE LIFE. FOR ONE WHO DOES NOT SO REALIZE IT,
GREAT IS THE LOSS. DISCOVERING THE ATMAN IN EVERY SINGLE BEING, THE WISE ONES, DYING
TO THIS WORLD OF SENSE-EXPERIENCE, BECOME IMMORTAL.

Go on dying to the past, and you will not have any world around you with which you are attached,

obsessed. Dying to the past, you die to this world. Remember, this world is created through your
experience; it IS your experience. Dying to experience, you are so young that you do not create any world
around you. The real world is not the problem -- the world around your mind is the problem.

I have heard: once it happened that a house was on fire. The master of the house was weeping, crying,

and beating his chest. His whole life was destroyed. Then suddenly a man came and said, "Why are you
weeping? Don't you know? Your son has settled yesterday; the house has been sold."

The tears disappeared and the man even started smiling. He said, "Is it so?" The house was still burning

but now his inner house was not burning. This house was not the problem, but an inner attachment.

Then the son came and said, "Yes, we were just going to settle but it is not settled yet."
The man's tears started flowing. He was weeping and beating his chest but the house was completely

unaware of what was happening to this man. Within minutes everything changes -- the inner world changes.
If the house were not his, then he would not have any problem. The problem was not the house but that "the
house is mine." That 'mine' creates the inner world.

If you go on throwing the past away, then nothing is yours. Then nothing is your possession; you always

remain without any possession. That is what sannyas is. Not that you will not use a house, not that you will
not use clothes, not that you will not live in this world -- but nothing will be your possession. The world of
the inner mind disappears. Then the real world is beautiful. All ugliness is projected by your mind, by the
dead past; then life becomes ugly.

With the living present, life is just beautiful and blissful.

The Supreme Doctrine

Chapter #11

Chapter title: Truth or Trick?

13 July 1973 pm in Mt Abu Meditation Camp

Archive code: 7307135

ShortTitle: DOCTRN11

Audio:

Yes

Video:

No

Length: 102 mins

The first question:

BELOVED OSHO,
YOU SAID THAT TO LIVE MOMENT TO MOMENT ONE MUST THROW AWAY ONE'S DEAD PAST AND
MEMORIES. DOES IT MEAN THAT ALL THE MEMORIES HAVE TO BE DISSOLVED AND DESTROYED
TO TRANSCEND THE MIND? BUT ONE NEEDS A STRONG MIND AND AN INTENSE AND SUFFICIENT

ACCUMULATION OF MEMORIES TO FUNCTION IN THIS WORLD.

To die to the past does not mean that you will not be able to remember it. It does not mean that all your

memories will be dissolved or destroyed. It only means that now you do not live in those memories, you are
not identified with those memories. You are freed from them. They will remain but now they will be just a
part of your brain, not part of your consciousness.

The brain is a mechanism, just like a tape-recording machine. The brain goes on recording everything.

The brain is the physical part. It will go on recording, and your memories cannot be destroyed unless the
brain is destroyed. But that is not the problem. The problem is that your consciousness is filled with
memories. Your consciousness goes on identifying itself with the brain and the brain is always stirred by
your consciousness -- and memories go on flooding you.

When it is said, "Die to the past," it means do not be identified with the brain. You can use the brain;

then it is just an instrument. When you will need it you will use it. And you will need it. You will have to go
back home; you will have to remember where you live -- where your house is, what your name is. You can
use these memories but use them; do not be used by them. That is the problem.

While you are here you need not think about the house where you live in your town but you go on

thinking about it. You need not remember your wife while you are here but you go on talking with her and
she is not here. When you go back home you must recognize that she is your wife but there is no need to be
bothered with her now. She must not come in the mind; the mind must not go on functioning unnecessarily.
It must not bring in the past; it must not flood the present with the past.

The memory remains. It is not being destroyed. Through meditation the mind is not destroyed. You

simply start transcending it. It remains a storehouse; you need not live in it. If you live in it then you are
mad. You need not live in a storehouse. When you need something, you go into the storehouse, bring that
something out and use it. But a storehouse is not a living-room.

But you have made it one. Your storehouse of memory has become your living room; you live there. Do

not live there, that is the whole meaning. Be in the present and whenever the past is needed use it. But do
not allow it to go on continuously overflooding you. That overflooding by the past makes your
consciousness dim and dull. Then you cannot see with clear eyes, you cannot feel with a clear heart. Then
nothing is clear, everything becomes confused.

Rather, on the contrary, when you are not identified with the mind you will have a very clear memory.

You do not have a really good memory because you are not your master. Your mind is just a mad
mechanism. When you need to remember something, it will not come and when you do not need it, it goes
on coming: you are not the master. You cannot be the master if you become identified with the slave. If you
become too much attached to the slave, the slave will start mastering you.

So if you die to the past you will not become less efficient in the functioning of your mind, you will

become more efficient. A master is always more efficient. When he wants to remember, he remembers;
when he doesn't want to remember, he doesn't remember. When he says to the mind, "Function," it
functions. When he says, "Stop," the mind stops. I have to use memories. I have to talk to you: I have to use
words, I have to use language. But only when I am talking to you do I use them. The moment I am not
talking the mind stops. Then there is total vacuum -- void. Then there is no cloud.

It is just like your legs: when you want to walk you use your legs. But if you go on moving them while

just sitting or standing, people will think you are mad. Then you may say, "What can I do? My legs go on
moving; I cannot do anything." And if someone says to you, "Stop this," you will say, "If I stop, then when I
want to walk what will I do? I will become less efficient. If I stop, then I will lose the capacity to walk, so I
have to use them constantly." Remember, if you use them constantly, when the time comes to walk you will
feel tired. You are already tired.

While sitting there is no need to use the legs. While not talking there is no need to use words. Do not

verbalize within. While not using the past there is no need to allow it to flood you. Dying to the past means
becoming master of your mind. Then you will be more efficient. But that efficiency will be of a different
quality -- a totally different quality. There will be no effort in it.

Now whenever you want to remember you have to make an effort because you are so tired; your brain is

so tired, continuously working. There is no stop for it, no relaxation. Even while you are asleep, the body is
resting but the mind continues to work. Dreaming, it is working -- constantly working. It is a miracle that
you are not mad. Or maybe you are already mad but you are not aware; or maybe, because everyone is mad
like you, you cannot compare and you cannot know what is happening to you.

Don't be afraid, your efficiency will be increased. And the quality will be different because there will be

no effort. When you need to, you can use your mind. It is just an instrument; just like your hands and legs it
is a physical part of you. Memory is a physical thing, remember, so if your brain is destroyed you may be
alive and conscious but you will lose your memory. If a particular part of your brain is destroyed, then a
particular type of memory will be lost.

One of my friends, a doctor, fell down from a train. He fell down on his head and something was

destroyed. For three years all memory was lost; he couldn't even recognize his father or mother. He was
alive, fully alive, conscious; but he couldn't read, couldn't write, because all memory was lost. He started
from abcd again and only after three years was he able to use his brain again. But now he was just a child of
three years; all the medical knowledge, all the degrees that he had, were lost, because particular tissues,
particular nerves in the brain, were destroyed and with them all memory was lost or cut off.

Now, in China, they use brainwashing. They give some electrical stimulation to particular parts of the

brain; just by electrical shock they destroy the inner memory. So if you are a religious man they will give
you a shock treatment in the mind and all your memories -- that you are religious, that you go to this church
or you read this holy book, or you belong to this sect -- will be destroyed. Then you can easily be converted
into a communist because then you don't know who you are.

And now these techniques have become available to the whole world. Every government now has the

secrets. And the most dangerous thing that is going to happen soon all over the world will be not physical
violence but psychological violence. You need not murder a man; you simply destroy a particular memory
in him. He is brainwashed, now he will have to learn from abc, so he cannot fight with you. If you want to
convert him into a communist or an anticommunist, first destroy the memory; then he becomes like a child,
helpless. Then start the training again. Now a new memory will be created, a new learning, a new
conditioning.

The atom bomb is not such a great danger as these secrets are because the very soul of man can be

enslaved through them. If Jesus is born now in Soviet Russia or communist China, they will not crucify
him; first they will try to destroy his memory. They cannot be successful with Jesus but they can be
successful with you. They cannot succeed with Jesus because he is already unidentified with the memory. If
you destroy the memory nothing is really lost because he lives in his consciousness, not in his memories.
You don't really have any consciousness separate from the memories, so if your memory is destroyed your
consciousness is destroyed. You don't know how to function without the memories.

So for the new generation, the coming world, meditation is a must because only that can protect you

from political dictatorship -- nothing else. They will not put you in jail or send you to Siberia -- no, those
things are just out of date now. They will simply put an electrical instrument around your head, and they
will give particular electric shocks to the brain, and you will become just like a child. They will wash out
the memories just as you can erase on a taperecorder. What is done there is just an electrical stimulation and
whatsoever is recorded is erased; then you can record again. The same is possible with the brain because the
brain is a mechanism.

And when I say to die to the past, I mean do not get so attached to the brain that you do not know that

you can exist without the brain. Knowing this, realizing this, that "Without the brain I CAN exist; I am
consciousness and not the memories; memories are just my instruments," you will become free from your
own mind. And once you are free from your mind, no one can make a slave of you. Otherwise, everyone is
trying to manipulate you to make you a slave.

Religions, so-called religions have done that. They go on manipulating your mind. When you were just a

child they were trying to teach you that you were a Hindu or a Christian or a Catholic or a Protestant. They
went on teaching you from the very childhood when you didn't know anything; when you were not alert;
when you were not aware; when you couldn't recognize what is true and what is false. When you could not
think, they started to teach you, to condition you. They made a Christian out of you or a Hindu or a Jaina or
a Mohammedan. These are slaveries.

Now there is no need to get hold of children; even an old man can be made a child again by just washing

his mind. Then he will have to learn from abc. And when you learn from abc you cannot argue, when you
have to learn from abc you cannot disbelieve. That is why every religion wants to get hold of children and
every religion tries to force some type of religious education because only in childhood....

Really, if you cannot get hold of a child before seven years of age, you will never get hold of him. Only

before seven years of age can you make a slave of him. Then he will never know that he is a slave because
slavery goes deeper than his awareness. You cannot think that being a Christian you are a slave or being a

Hindu you are a slave -- or can you?

Society has played a trick upon you. When you were not fully alert they conditioned your mind. Now

when you think, the conditioning has gone deeper than thinking. Whatsoever you think, that conditioning
colors it. Even if you become anti-Christian and you were taught to be a Christian, your anti-Christianity
will carry your Christianity with it. Even your anti-Christianity will be colored by the conditioning that was
given to you. You will be obsessed with the same thing in the reverse order.

Friedrich Nietzsche was against Christianity, particularly against Christ. But he was brought up as a

Christian. His whole life he struggled; his whole life he went on writing against Christ. But he was so much
obsessed with Christ that when he went mad, in the last stage of his life before he became mad, he started
signing his name "Anti-Christ, Friedrich Nietzsche." That conditioning had gone so deep! You can become
anti, but you cannot be indifferent.

Die to the past, be alive to the present, to the moment you are in -- it will not destroy your mind. Really,

it will give a rest to your restless mind. Your efficiency will grow, and there will be no effort. You will not
NEED to remember. You will simply remember because this is the functioning of the mind; you need not
make any effort.

I have been traveling all over this country for fifteen years, and I have known thousands and thousands

of people. Even after ten years I have been again to the same town -- I remember the faces, I remember the
names. Even I was surprised: What is the matter? -- and I had not made any effort. But I am interested in
people, that is all. If you are really interested in something, you will remember it; there is no need to make
any effort.

Remembering is a mechanical functioning of the memory. If you are really interested in a person you

will remember the face even after many lives. I remember many faces after many lives. You cannot forget
them because there is no question of forgetting. The mechanical part of your brain just goes on recording
everything. The only thing that is needed is your interest.

When you are interested your mechanism is focused on the person; it records just like the lens of a

camera. If you are interested in a face the camera moves, it records. If I am interested in what you are saying
my mind is focused; it records, it goes on recording. There is no need to make any effort. If you are not
interested, then it will not record because then it is not focused.

So if you forget things it is because you are not interested. If you forget things it is because your mind is

confused. If you forget things and cannot remember and are not efficient, it means that while you are seeing
a face your many memories inside go on moving. Your mirror is not vacant; your lens is already
overcrowded.

Someone is saying, "My name is Ram," and you nod your head, yes, as if you have heard. But your

mind is filled with so many things, you have not heard. And then you say, "Why have I forgotten the
name?" Really, you never heard the name. You were not interested in the person -- not so interested that
your mind became silent.

Whenever you are interested the mind is silent -- your whole being is open. The memories go on being

recorded and whenever you need something it will come up. But it is not so easy with you. Because your
mind is so much filled, whenever you need something everything gets entangled. Nothing is clearcut;
everything penetrates, trespasses, every other thing. Nothing is clear. The clarity is not there; only confusion
is there. Because of that confusion you are not efficient. You will be more efficient, and without any effort,
if you become alert to the moment and do not allow the past to go on overburdening you.

The second question:

BELOVED OSHO,
I FEEL AND REALIZE THE FUTILITY OF DESIRING. THERE SEEMS TO BE NO AMBITION IN ME. BUT
YET THERE IS A THIRST, A YEARNING, AND AN INNER SENSE OF UNFULFILLMENT. PLEASE
EXPLAIN WHETHER THIS TOO IS A PART OF DESIRING.

Yes, this too is a part of desiring -- the negative part. Everything has two parts, the positive and the

negative. The positive part of desiring is to desire something, to be ambitious. To be aware of the object of
desire is a positive desire. The negative desire is: one is not aware of the object of desire, but one is aware
only of the thirst of desire -- of the yearning.

These are the two parts. The subjective feeling of unfulfillment is the negative part of ambition and

being obsessed with an object of desire is the positive part of ambition. Both are ambition. And if you
intellectually understand that desire is futile, the negative part will remain with you -- if you
INTELLECTUALLY understand that desire is futile and this is not an existential experience.

You have been hearing things, you have been listening and you have been reading. And Buddhas and

Christs have been talking to the world and they have been saying that you are in misery because of desire,
that you are in suffering because of desire -- and they say they are in bliss because of desirelessness. And
you have seen them: you have seen their eyes, you have seen their faces, you have seen the grace, the bliss,
the ecstasy that just moves around them. Even in their shadow the ecstasy, the dance is there. You have seen
them and you have heard them and they say if you desire you will be in suffering, if you do not desire you
will be in ecstasy and bliss.

Now intellectually you can understand this, because desire creates tension, because desire creates the

future, because desire creates expectations, and when it is not fulfilled you are in misery. Or even when it is
fulfilled you are not in bliss. When it is fulfilled you feel that this is nothing -- that this is nothing compared
to the dream, compared to the hope. You fall in love with a person, a girl or a boy, you fall in love with a
house, you fall in love with a car, and you think, "If this woman is achieved I will be in absolute bliss." But
this is your dream; no woman can fulfill it.

This is just fantasy; no real woman can fulfill it. Every real woman will be just a faint thing compared to

it. But there is no fault on the woman's part. This is your mind which goes on fantasizing. You create a
fantasy, a romance, and you move high in the heavens. Then you meet the woman. If you cannot achieve
her, if you cannot get possession of her, you will be in misery, because you had a dream and the dream
remained unfulfilled. You will feel a constant pain in the heart.

But I tell you, if you meet her, if you can get her, you will be in a deeper misery, because at least the

dream remains intact if you have not met her -- you can go on dreaming. But if you meet her you will see
that no woman lives in heaven. As you live on earth, she lives on earth. She is as earthly as you -- even
more. Woman is more earthly than man. She will shatter all your dreams. And when you awake from your
dreaming, you will be in misery. Whether your dream is fulfilled or not, misery will be the result. Out of
dreaming only misery results.

This you can understand. Your experience can also be helpful. Intellectually you can understand and

then you can come to conclude that it is futile to desire -- to be ambitious is futile; it leads to misery and
hell. But this will stop only the positive desiring; the negative will remain. Really, you are still desiring --
now desirelessness. You are now desiring a state of NON-DESIRE. Now desirelessness has become the
object of desire. You will feel a yearning, a search, a thirst and an unfulfillment.

What is to be done now? What can be done? Intellectually nothing will happen to you: you will go on

changing the object of desire and the negative part will go on pushing you into new desires. Live it. Do not
believe in Buddha, do not believe in Jesus, do not believe in me. Live it. Desire and live, and experience
desire in its totality. And do not hurry, do not make any haste to conclude. Your misery is because you
make such hurried conclusions.

You are so susceptible to believing in anything because you do not want to go through experience.

Experience may be painful -- let it be. But only experience can help you. Premature conclusions, premature
beliefs, will be of no help. You are simply wasting opportunities. Desire and desire intensely, I tell you:
desire intensely and suffer!

Buddha comes to his conclusion not because of previous buddhas. Upani-shads were in existence; he

could have read them. He was well educated, well cultured, he knew all the scriptures, but they didn't help
him. He moved through desire, he moved through experience; he suffered, he went through the fire. And
only through his own experience did he come to conclude that desire is futile.

Your conclusion is not YOUR conclusion; that is the problem. Your conclusion is borrowed. You are

really afraid to go through suffering, so before going through suffering you start believing. But suffering is a
discipline. The only real discipline is suffering. Nothing real can be achieved without it.

And you are acting like small children: in their books, the answers are given in the back. Small children

will just look at the answers. They get the answers but they do not know the process. The problem is given
and the answer is given in the last chapter. They look at the answer and they know the answer, but this is not
THEIR answer. They know the problem and they know the answer, but they do not know the process -- how
the answer is achieved.

You have been looking at the answers without going through the process. Answers are there. Buddhas

have existed; they have said everything that can be said and you can memorize the answers, but without the

process you will not be transformed. So forget the answers; that is what the Upanishads say. Knowledge is
the barrier: forget knowledge. If you are ignorant, then you are ignorant. Start from your ignorance; do not
start from anybody else's knowledge.

It is better to start with your ignorance because that can lead you toward knowledge. But you always

start with somebody else's knowledge. Then you move in a false world, then you go on accumulating
conclusions, and you know everything without knowing anything. You are in such a hurry. You say, "I do
not want to go through the process; I want the answer."

The answer can be given to you -- but unless you move through the process, the answer will not be a

lived answer. Unless lived, it is futile. You know desire is futile, you know anger is poison, you know greed
leads to misery -- you know everything. But that knowledge is of no use. Throw it! It is rubbish.

Just be aware of your state of mind: the yearning is there, the thirst is there, the unfulfillment is there.

That means you are ready to desire. Now desire, and do not listen to buddhas: they are dangerous. Desire!
Move! You will have to move your own way; you will have to suffer your own way. Nobody can escape
suffering. The law is universal. Nobody can come to shortcuts; there are none. You will have to move your
own way, you will have to pass through your own hells.

When you have passed through them, transcended them, have become richer, experienced them and a

maturity has happened to you -- only then will desire fall. Desire will disappear and then there will be no
negative part to it. Then the total desire will disappear because you will come to realize this is nonsense. "I
have been creating my own hell." And this is not intellectual, this is not in the mind. Your total being, your
whole being, will come to conclude and this conclusion will be through your experience, not through
anybody else's.

Then desire disappears without giving birth to another desire in a different guise. Otherwise you will go

on changing the objects. Sometimes you desire wealth and then you feel misery. And then you conclude that
this desire is misery, so you start desiring God or you start desiring heaven or you start desiring liberation or
you start desiring meditation, ecstasy -- but you go on desiring. And if you go on desiring, you are simply
changing the shape of the desire, the object of the desire. But DESIRE remains the same: YOU are not
changing, you remain the same. You are moving in a pattern, in a circle. You are not moving anywhere.

Hence, I go on saying again and again, be aware -- beware of Buddhas, Christs, Krishnas. Beware of me

because I go on saying things to you which you can believe and then it is dangerous. When I say something,
try to understand it; do not conclude through it. Conclusion must come through your own life; only then will
it be a mutation. And do not be in a hurry. There is no hurry; time is eternal.

Experience! Be authentic to your experience and allow the conclusions to come only through your own

individual particular search. The truth will happen to you but it will not happen to you if you go on
borrowing it from others. That becomes a substitute truth. It creates more problems than it solves.

Your problems, as I see them, are ninety percent because of your borrowed knowledge. Only ten percent

of problems are true. Ninety percent are false because they do not belong to you at all. First you start
believing in a thing and then problems start to arise out of that belief. This is a borrowed problem which
arises because you have believed, because you have concluded intellectually, rationally, that desire is futile.
If this is really your conclusion, then how can unfulfillment still exist there? Unfulfillment is the seed of
desire.

When you are unfulfilled it means desire: you want to seek fulfillment somewhere. When you are

unfulfilled it means you are not that which you would like to be, you are not there where you would like to
be. So desire, find, seek, move! Unfulfillment means discontentment with yourself. Fulfillment means: I am
what I am; I am where I should be. Or wherever I am, I am absolutely content with me -- fulfilled. Then
there is no movement of desire.

Movement is there but that movement is of life, not of desire. I will go on moving and each movement

will happen through my life energy, not through desire. Desire is through mind. Life goes on moving but I
will move like a river. The very energy will create a movement but the movement will not be according to
desire. I will not desire first and then move. Try to understand this distinction.

I am speaking to you. This speaking can be of two types: it can be a sheer movement of life energy, or it

can be part of a desire. If I desire it, then I will have to rehearse it. Then before coming to you, in my mind I
will desire you to be present. Then in my mind I will think what to say, what not to say, how to say it and
how not to say it. Then I will plan it; then I have moved into the future. Then I will repeat it. Then if it is not
up to the standard I had planned I will feel frustrated.

I have heard that once Mark Twain was coming back from a lecture hall where he had lectured. When

he came back, his wife asked him, "How was the lecture?"

Mark Twain said, "What lecture are you asking about -- the one I rehearsed before, or the one I actually

delivered, or the one I wanted to deliver and was delivering instead in the car while coming back?"

If I think about it beforehand it is desire. If I simply come to you and it is a response, not planned, not

thought about, it is a sheer movement of life energy, there has been no planning for it, then it is life moving.
If it has been planned then it is mind desiring.

Movement will be there but it will be unplanned, spontaneous. Desire cripples movement. It doesn't

allow life energy itself to move. It plans, it chooses, it decides beforehand. Before the actual situation you
have already decided. You will always be in difficulty because it is never going to be exactly the right
response -- because you cannot conceive of the situation beforehand. It always remains unknown. You will
feel frustrated.

A mind which desires will always feel frustrated. Only a mind which doesn't desire, which simply

moves wheresoever life, the Brahman, leads it to -- whether right or wrong, whether to hell or heaven,
wheresoever the life energy leads, the one who is desireless moves within. Nothing can frustrate such a
being. How? How can you frustrate him? And nothing can make YOU fulfilled. How can anyone make you
fulfilled? With desire there is no meeting with fulfillment. With nondesire there is no meeting with
frustration.

Be true and authentic to yourself and if you have not overcome desire do not believe that you have

overcome it; that is not going to help. Know that you have not overcome. Know that ambition is there; know
that as you are you are unfulfilled. You need something else. That need for something else... whether vague
or not, whether you know what it is or not, makes no difference; you are not at this moment whole and total,
at ease with yourself. You are not at home. Your home is somewhere else; you are searching for it.

Know it because this knowing will be good and helpful. Know it and move into desire. Suffer it! Feel

the pain of it, the frustration of it, and allow life itself to come to a conclusion. Please don't you conclude;
allow life itself to come to its conclusion. And when life comes to its conclusion, desire falls without any
substitute desire being created there. It simply falls down. Just like dead leaves fall from a tree, desire falls
from you -- total desire. Then there is no negative part hidden behind it. And when you are in the state of
nondesiring, all that is blissful happens to you, all that is ecstatic happens to you. You flower for the first
time. And when there is no unfulfillment, you are fulfilled AS YOU ARE.

But before that happens, if you go on borrowing it will be difficult: you are creating unnecessary

barriers for yourself. The conclusions may appeal to you but that appeal is of no meaning. I can convince
you about something but that conviction carries no meaning because it has been forced by me. I can argue, I
can convince, and you may feel this is right. But that feeling will not help unless your life energy concludes
it, unless it is an inner conviction which arises within you and is not forced from without.

That is why I say buddhas are dangerous -- because they are so convincing. When you move around

them there is every possibility that you will become a victim, every possibility that you will get convinced.
Their very being is convincing. That is why so many religions are created, so many sects are there.
Whenever a buddha happens, an enlightened one, necessarily you get convinced, you become hypnotized --
and you borrow conclusions. And then for lives together you go on with those borrowed conclusions and
they become a burden.

Die to that burden! Be authentic to yourself and try to find out where you are. Even if it is hell, accept

that "I am in hell." The very acceptance that you are in hell will create the situation where you can move out
of it. But you live in hell and you go on believing that you are in heaven. This is sheer nonsense and nothing
can come out of it.

The last question:

BELOVED OSHO,
LAST NIGHT YOU SAID THAT SOMETIMES YOU LIE AND OFFER CONDOLENCES FOR OUR
FRUSTRATIONS. THEN WHEN ARE WE TO BELIEVE YOU AND HOW ARE WE TO KNOW IF YOU ARE
TALKING TO US IN TRUTH OR IN TRICK?

Never believe me; do not believe me at all. Be alert. Whatsoever I say may all be lies; it may all be just

a trick to give you consolation -- just to help you to take a step ahead. Do not believe me! And it is difficult
for you to decide when I am speaking truth and when I am speaking a lie. That is why I say wholesale: Do
not believe me -- because how can you decide? You do not know what the truth is; hence, how can you
decide?

If you know the truth already, then there is no meaning for me, no use, in telling you any lies. But

because you do not know and you cannot understand the language of truth, it will be absurd for you -- you
can understand only the language of lies.

But lies are of two types: there are lies which can lead you to further lies and lies which can lead you

beyond them. For example, we are sitting here. If you have not known the outside ever, you do not know
that flowers are there, trees are there, and the moon is in the sky. And if I tell you to come out -- that the
moon has come out and it is a full-moon night, so come out -- you will not believe me. You will say, "What
is night? What is the moon? What is the full moon?"

And there is nothing in this room by which I can show you that it is like this. And I have known the

moon, and I have known the flowers and the open sky, and I want to share my bliss with you. I want that
you should also come out, so I create a device, I use a lie: I say the house is on fire; you can understand that.
You become afraid, you start trembling. And I create such a conviction in you that the house is on fire, that
you start escaping from the room.

Of course, outside you will understand me. You will not say that I lied. You will be grateful; you will

laugh. You will say, "There is no fire but now we can understand." Only fire could have brought you out --
nothing else -- because that language you can understand. Suffering you can understand, bliss you cannot
understand.

Hence, buddhas go on saying life is misery. It is not! They go on saying it is DUKKHA -- misery,

suffering, anguish. They are saying that the house of life is on fire, so escape from it. And they convince
you because they have that freshness which comes to persons who have come out of the house. They have
that perfume that comes to persons who have come out into the open sky; they bring that flavor. You
become convinced because you see that what they say must be true: they have attained something and that
attainment creates conviction. And when they say the house -- the life -- is on fire, you try to escape out of
this house.

When you get out, you know it is a full-moon night and life was not suffering. Life appeared to be

suffering because you had become imprisoned in a cage.

Life is vast, so you cannot know when I am lying or when I am saying the truth. And if you ask me to

tell you when I am lying or when I am saying the truth, then the whole point will be lost. And even if I say
that this is a lie and this is a truth, how can you believe me, whether I am still lying or not?

So it will be easier for you, if you can believe me, to believe TOTALLY. Or if you cannot believe me,

then do not believe me at all. This will be easy: either think that whatsoever I am saying is true or
whatsoever I am saying is a lie. These are the only two possibilities. Both ways you will be helped. I say
that both ways you will be helped. You will not be in confusion.

If you believe me totally, that "whatsoever this man says is true," this will help you. Not that whatsoever

I say will be true, but ultimately you will find that it was the only thing that could have been helpful to you.
But that you will come to know only afterwards.

If you do not believe me at all, that will also be good. That too is not easy. The easier course is to

believe some things and not to believe other things. If you believe me totally or not at all, in either case you
become total. In one case you are surrendered to me and you say, "Whether you lie or not, that is your
business: I believe." Then you become total; you are not divided. Or if you say, "Whether you say a truth or
a lie, I do not believe you -- you are a liar," then too you are total, and totality helps.

But the easier course is to believe in some things and not to believe in other things. Why is it easier? It is

easier because with whatsoever you want to believe you will think, "He is true," and with whatsoever you
do not want to believe you will think, "He is lying." That will not be of much help; it is of NO help really.
So do not choose. My advice is: do not believe at all -- but if you think that the other will be good then
believe totally.

The Supreme Doctrine

Chapter #12

Chapter title: The Great Circle of Brahman

14 July 1973 am in Mt Abu Meditation Camp

Archive code: 7307140

ShortTitle: DOCTRN12

Audio:

Yes

Video:

No

Length: 124 mins

INVOCATION

THE STORY GOES THAT BRAHMAN OBTAINED A VICTORY FOR THE DEVAS. THOUGH THE VICTORY
WAS DUE TO BRAHMAN, THE DEVAS BECAME ELATED BY IT AND THOUGHT: "THIS VICTORY IS DUE
ONLY TO US; THIS GLORY BELONGS ONLY. TO US"
BRAHMAN CAME TO KNOW THIS, THEIR VANITY. HE VERILY APPEARED BEFORE THEM, BUT THEY
DID NOT UNDERSTAND WHO THAT YAKSHA -- DEMI-GOD -- WAS.
THEY ADDRESSED AGNI: "OH JATAVEDA, PLEASE FIND OUT WHO THIS YAKSHA IS." "YES," SAID
AGNI.
AGNI HASTENED TO THE YAKSHA. THE YAKSHA ASKED HIM WHO HE WAS. AGNI REPLIED: "I AM
VERILY AGNI; I AM ALSO KNOWN AS JATAVEDA" -- NEAR-OMNISCIENT.
"WHAT ENERGY DO YOU POSSESS, YOU OF SUCH FAME?" ASKED THE YAKSHA. "I CAN BURN
EVERYTHING -- WHATEVER THERE IS ON THIS EARTH," REPLIED AGNI.
THE YAKSHA PLACED A STRAW BEFORE HIM AND SAID: "BURN THIS." AGNI APPROACHED IT WITH
ALL SPEED; HE WAS, HOWEVER, UNABLE TO BURN IT. SO HE WITHDREW FROM THERE AND
RETURNED TO THE GODS SAYING, "I COULD NOT ASCERTAIN WHO THIS YAKSHA WAS."
THEN THEY ADDRESSED VAYU: "OH VAYU, PLEASE ASCERTAIN THIS, WHO THIS YAKSHA IS." "YES,"
SAID VAYU.
VAYU HASTENED TO THE YAKSHA. THE YAKSHA ASKED HIM WHO HE WAS. VAYU REPLIED, "I AM
VERILY VAYU. I AM ALSO KNOWN AS MATARISVA" -- CARRIER OF THE ATMOSPHERE.
"WHAT ENERGY DO YOU POSSESS, YOU OF SUCH FAME?" ASKED THE YAKSHA. "I CAN VERILY
BLOW AWAY EVERYTHING -- WHATEVER THERE IS ON THIS EARTH," REPLIED VAYU.
THE YAKSHA PLACED A STRAW BEFORE HIM AND SAID, "BLOW THIS AWAY." VAYU APPROACHED IT
WITH ALL SPEED; HE WAS, HOWEVER, UNABLE TO BLOW IT AWAY. SO HE WITHDREW FROM
THERE AND RETURNED TO THE GODS SAYING: "I COULD NOT ASCERTAIN WHO THIS YAKSHA
WAS."
THEN THE GODS ADDRESSED INDRA: "OH MAGHAVAN -- REJOICING ONE -- PLEASE ASCERTAIN
WHO THIS YAKSHA IS." "YES," SAID INDRA, AND HASTENED TO THE YAKSHA. BUT THE YAKSHA
DISAPPEARED FROM HIS VIEW.
AND IN THAT VERY SPOT HE BEHELD A WOMAN, THE WONDROUSLY EFFULGENT UMA, THE
DAUGHTER OF THE SNOW-CLAD MOUNTAIN, HIMAVAT. AND OF HER HE ASKED: "WHO COULD THIS
YAKSHA BE?"

In deep silence there is no ego. It exists only when you are disturbed. It is part of disease. When you are

deeply silent, you are, but there is no feeling of the 'I'. It cannot exist in silence. When you are totally calm
and quiet, the 'I' is not there. But the more disturbed you are, the more you will have the feeling of the ego.

The ego is a disturbed, diseased state of the mind. The ego is not healthy. It is an illness. You become

aware of it only when you are not in total harmony. When you are in harmony, you are, but there is no 'I', no

feeling of the 'I'. 'Am-ness' is there, being is there, but without a center.

This is one of the most significant phenomena to be understood. For instance, you become aware of your

body only when it is ill. If you are really healthy you don't have a body at all; a healthy body is bodiless,
there is no feeling that it exists. Your head exists only when there is a headache: if the headache is not there,
the head is not there. Can you feel your head? If you can feel it, it means there is some heaviness.
Something is disturbed, something is ill. You become aware of your stomach when it is disturbed.

This is the definition of health: that if the body is not felt you are healthy, if the body is felt you are

unhealty -- because only pain is felt. Whenever there is some pain, you feel it. Pain is needed to feel the
body and pain is needed to feel yourself. And that pain creates the I, that suffering, anguish, anxiety, creates
the I.

So if you are egoistic, remember that this shows that your inner harmony is lost. You cannot do anything

about the ego directly -- unless you regain the inner harmony. If you start doing something for the ego
directly, nothing will happen. On the contrary, you may get more disturbed. All the religions say: be
egoless. They mean: be harmonious. Their insistence to dissolve the ego is the insistence to dissolve the
disturbance -- become a rhythm, become an inner silence. They insist for health.

The Sanskrit word for health is very beautiful: the word is SWASTHA -- it means to be in one's self.

When you are in your self, there is no ego. The English word health also is beautiful from a different
viewpoint. It comes from the same root as the word whole comes from -- wholeness. When you are whole,
you are healthy; when you are fragmented, divided, split, you are unhealthy. When you have a feeling of
wholeness -- no division, undivided, one -- you are healthy. The word holy also comes from whole. When
you are really whole, you are holy, you are pure, innocent.

The ego exists when you are fragmented, divided, split -- when you are not one. When your parts are in

conflict and there is a disharmony within, turmoil, anguish, the ego exists. The greater the anxiety, the
greater will be the ego. If you try to fulfill your ego you will get more and more disturbed -- and the last
state of ego is madness. If you really try to fulfill the ego you will become mad.

In the East, madness is not such a problem as it is in the West because the whole Western mind depends

on the ambition to fulfill the ego. American psychologists say that now three persons out of four are
mentally ill. This is too much -- unbelievable! And if it is true, then the fourth is just on the boundary line,
because the fourth is a part; he lives among these three. He cannot be really healthy -- just so-so, just on the
boundary line. Any moment he can fall into madness.

Many modern psychiatrists are of the opinion that the whole of humanity is mad and the difference is

only of degrees. If you are not mad that only means you are simply normally mad -- not abnormally mad,
mm? You are just within limits -- mad within limits. You can function, that's all, but any moment you can
cross the boundary. Any happening, any accident -- you wife dies, your money is lost, your bank becomes
bankrupt, your house is on fire -- and you can cross the boundary in a single moment. There is not much
distance to travel and you can go mad. You were already mad but just waiting for the boiling-point. It can
come any moment.

Why is this happening so much in the West? Why is everyone going for psychoanalysis? Really, those

who cannot go for psychoanalysis are thought to be poor now. Those who are rich, those who can afford it,
they go for it of necessity. It is a very costly affair. It is a luxury because psychoanalysis takes years -- two
years, three years, even five years, and it is a very costly treatment. Only the very rich can afford it. But the
profession is growing, and now psychiatrists are very rich. They are getting richer every day.

The human mind gets more and more disturbed if you try to fulfill the ego because for a greater ego to

exist you need greater disturbance, greater illness, disease, greater fragmentation, division. When your
fragments of being are in deep conflict, they create the tension. In that tension ego can exist. Fight is needed
for the ego -- a battleground: your being must become a battleground.

This can happen in two ways: either you can fight with others or you can fight with yourself. You can

fight with others in a competitive world. You are ambitious, others are also ambitious. You want to be
fulfilled as an ego, others are also on the same route. Then you fight with them. This is the worldly way to
achieve the ego -- the political way or the economic way.

But there are religious ways also. You stop fighting with others. You divide yourself and you start

fighting with yourself. You fight with sex, you fight with anger, you fight with the body, you fight with this
world -- this world of 'sin' -- you divide yourself. You divide yourself as body/mind, body/soul. Not only
that: you divide your body also into the lower body and the higher body. Through these divisions you can
fight with yourself.

So remember, there are worldly egos and there are spiritual egos. A man who achieves riches, achieves

prestige, becomes powerful, has ego. But do not think that a person who is struggling spiritually doesn't
have one. He may have an even subtler ego -- a deeper, a more refined ego, but he has one. Your so-called
saints are all egoistic. They achieve their egos through austerities -- through TAPA, through arduous effort.
They have their own victories upon themselves. They have no enemies outside, they have created the enemy
within. And then they fight with it, and when they win they have a very egoistic feeling. They feel power.

So the second thing to be understood: whenever you feel powerful, remember you have attained a

crystallization of the ego. And whenever YOU are powerful, you cannot meet the divine, you cannot meet
the truth, because power exists in conflict, power exists in fight. Power is created through war, through
violence, through aggression. Power is against love, power is against silence, and power is against the total.

You cannot meet the Brahman, the absolute, if you feel yourself to be powerful. You meet the total only

when you feel yourself to be totally powerless, helpless, no one, nobody. If you are feeling powerful in any
way, you are creating a barrier. When you are powerful you are blind to the total. And you are so much
disturbed through your power, so much in inner turmoil, that you cannot have that silence which can
become a meeting, a communion with the total. Hence, the emphasis of all religions to dissolve the ego:
only then can you enter the divine.

Jesus says: "Only those who are like children will enter my kingdom of God." Why "like children"?

Children are helpless; they are not powerful. Children are still part of the cosmic whole. They have not yet
become egos. They do not yet have a crystallized center of the ego; they are still undivided. That is why
children are so beautiful. It is difficult to find an ugly child and it is difficult to find a beautiful old man.

Why? If every child is born so beautiful, then why does every old man go on becoming ugly? Something

goes wrong somewhere. Every child is beautiful. The beauty comes from wholeness. The child is whole,
undivided. He has no fragments, no division. He is not schizophrenic, he is not fighting anything. He is
simply living, breathing, with no fight. The world is not yet a struggle. And he is not fighting with himself
either -- he is not yet religious. He is simply a natural being just like animals, birds, trees, rocks. He is part
of the cosmic whole.

He will come out of it. We will bring him out of it; we cannot leave him like that. And even if we leave

him he will come out of it, because he has the potentiality to be divided, he has the potentiality to become
an ego. And that is part of the ultimate education, that he must become an ego, because unless you have an
ego you cannot lose it.

The child is pre-ego. His innocence is natural, but a natural innocence can be disturbed at any moment.

Whenever he becomes mind, he becomes cunning. Whenever he will become alert about his individuality,
he will become egoistic.

This is the meaning of the biblical story, that Adam and Eve were innocent in the garden of Eden and

God prohibited them to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Why was the fruit of the tree of knowledge
prohibited? -- because the moment you know, you are separated. Knowledge separates.

The child is innocent because he is ignorant. He doesn't know where he ends and where you begin.

Child psychologists say that in the beginning the child cannot even feel where he ends and where his mother
begins. He feels everything as one. For nine months in the womb he exists as one with his mother. He
breathes through his mother, he lives through his mother. Even after being born, when he has come out of
the womb, deep in his mind he goes on existing as one with his mother. He has no ego and he cannot feel
that he is separate yet. By and by he will know that he is separate, by and by he will become aware of YOU.

Remember, the consciousness of the 'you' comes first, and then he becomes aware of 'I'. When he starts

feeling you as separate, then reflectively he becomes aware that he is separate, that he is not you. The
mother goes away and he is still there. Now he becomes aware of the distance and now he starts feeling the
'I'. But that 'I' too is not very solid. In the beginning children always address themselves in the third person.
If the child's name is Ram, he will say, "Ram is feeling thirsty." He will speak in the third person; he will
not say, "I am feeling thirsty." The 'I' is not yet solid, it is not yet assertive. He still feels that 'Ram' is feeling
thirsty -- as if Ram is a 'you', not an 'I'.

Children always speak in the third person. They say, "Ram is feeling sleepy. Do not do this and Ram

will feel good. Do not do that or Ram will feel bad." They address themselves as if they were addressing
someone else. The 'I' is not yet solid. It will become more and more solid the more they come to an
awareness of others. The others exist first and then you start existing. It is a reflection. 'I' is an inverted 'you'.

Adam and Eve were prohibited to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge but they had to eat it. It is part of

maturing. They were innocent. The moment they ate the fruit they became alert and aware. Suddenly they

started hiding their bodies. Now Eve was aware of Adam and Adam was aware of Eve. Clothes came into
existence through the ego. They became aware of themselves as separate. Before that they were just part of
each other; they never knew that they were separate. They became separated. And this happens to every
Adam and Eve. It did not only happen once: whenever a child is born, he comes out of the garden of Eden.

In the mother's womb he is in the garden of Eden, one with existence, with no responsibilities, with no

worries, with no ego. He exists but without any center. Then he is born. Really, the story, this biblical story
of Adam and Eve, is the story of every child's birth. He is thrown out of the mother. Adam and Eve were
thrown out of the garden of Eden and every child has to be thrown out. Then the ego grows; it goes on
growing. And with it the pain goes on growing.

Hence, every old man goes on thinking in terms that childhood was paradise. It was! In this sense it was

a paradise because you were not yet an ego. You had not tasted the fruit of knowledge; you had not come to
know yourself as separate. With separation problems arise: you become anxious. With separation, death
arises.

It is said in the biblical story that death didn't exist before. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit, death came

into existence. Before that they were immortal. Every child is immortal. He is not aware of death because
death can become meaningful only to the 'I', to the ego. When you have a conception that you are separate,
immediately the problem arises whether you are going to be here forever or whether you will die. The trees
are immortal. Not that they do not die -- they die but they have no awareness of death. The animals are
immortal. Not that death is not going to be there -- death will be there but they are not aware of it. They
have no egos, so how can they feel they are going to die? 'I' must be there before I can feel that I will die.
Death is part of the ego.

So now let me tell you: death arises out of disease, illness; and death is the last thing, the climax, where

ego ends. Ego creates death around you and the fear -- and this is the paradox: the more fearful you feel
about death, the more you try to be powerful. Because you think that if you are powerful, then you can do
something about death. At least you can postpone it; you can push it away a little.

But the more powerful you grow, the more death becomes significant. The more powerful you grow, the

more you become afraid of death, because with the power grows the ego. If you are rich, politically
powerful, you will be more afraid of death. If you are poor, with no power, you will not be so afraid of
death.

Western people, when they come to the East, simply cannot understand why people in the East are so

indifferent to death. They are so powerless. They do not have very fixed and solid egos so they cannot be so
much afraid. You become more afraid. You become afraid in proportion to what death is going to take away
from you. If you do not have anything, what can death take away from you? A poor man is not so afraid of
death. Really, death cannot take anything away from him. He may attain something through death, but he
cannot lose.

The richer you grow, the more afraid you are because all your riches will be taken away. Whatsoever is

achieved will be taken away. The more power you have, the more you feel powerless before death because
it will make you impotent again. All the glory and all the power will go and you will die like any beggar.

Death is absolutely communistic: it equalizes all. The lowest, naturally, cannot be much afraid. The

highest will be afraid because he will be pulled down. Death will take your presidentship, your
prime-ministership, and death will take from the beggar his beggary. The president and the beggar will
become equal in death. Of course, the president will be more afraid. He has a deeper fear than a beggar can
have.

The West has become very much afraid of death. It has become an obsession. This is bound to be

because now the West is more powerful; they have something to lose. And when they see the indifference in
the East, they cannot understand why people are so indifferent to death. This is the reason: they have not
much to lose. They are existing on the lowest rung, so death cannot become a fall to them. They are already
fallen; they are already existing in the grave.

What I intend to say is: power gives you ego, ego creates lust for power and this becomes a vicious

circle. And when you are powerful you become afraid of death. When you become afraid of death you
cannot enter the divine because the divine is a sort of death. Really, to enter the divine, to enter the whole,
means to lose yourself as an individual -- to become a child again.

But this childhood, this second childhood, is qualitatively different from the first. The first childhood

was animal-like; the second childhood is godlike. The first childhood was bound to be disturbed; the second
childhood cannot be disturbed. By "second childhood" I mean a state where you have consciously -- through

understanding, through meditation, through surrender -- lost yourself again into the total. Then the circle is
complete; you have become a child again. Hindus have called such a person in second childhood DWIJ --
twice-born. This is a new birth. The old is dead. The man is again a child.

A saint, if he is really a saint, must become a child again. And Jesus says that only children can enter

into God -- can enter into the kingdom of God. Unless you become like Adam and Eve again, unless you
throw the fruit of knowledge that you have eaten out of your system again, you cannot enter the garden. If
you can understand this, then this parable will be easy for you to follow.

This is a parable -- one of the most loved. This parable is easy but its implications are very complex.

First I will read the parable, and then we will discuss it.

THE STORY GOES THAT BRAHMAN OBTAINED A VICTORY FOR THE DEVAS. THOUGH THE VICTORY
WAS DUE TO BRAHMAN, THE DEVAS BECAME ELATED BY IT AND THOUGHT: "THIS VICTORY IS DUE
ONLY TO US; THIS GLORY BELONGS ONLY TO US."

It always happens so. Whatsoever you attain is attained by your inner spirit, not by your ego. But the

ego always exploits the whole victory. It says, "I have done this." And, really, nothing is ever done by the
ego. The ego is the exploiter -- an exploiter par excellence. Even things like birth are exploited by the ego.
You say, "This is my birthday" -- as if you have done something about your birth. You say, "MY birthday! I
was born on this day," as if the 'I' did something. The birth happened. It is a happening, not a doing. But
your ego exploits even that.

You say, "I breathe." It is absolutely wrong. Breathing happens; you are not breathing. Breathing goes

on without you. You can interfere but you cannot breathe. Breathing is a natural thing. The Brahman
breathes through you. If it was so, as we say, that "I breathe," then death would become impossible --
because if you can go on breathing, what can death do?

But you cannot go on breathing. If the breath goes out and doesn't come back, what can you do? You

cannot do anything, because really, if the breath has gone out and doesn't come in, you are no more there to
do anything. You do not exist; you are out of existence. Breathing is not something which you are doing. It
is something which is happening to you: a greater force... life you may call it. The Upanishads call it
Brahman, the elan vital of Bergson, or whatsoever you like to call it.

Life breathes through you, but the ego goes on exploiting everything and goes on saying, "I am

breathing." You fall in love and you say, "I love." Really, it is never anything on your part. Or can 'you'
love? If I say, "Love this woman," you will say, "How can I love if I have not already fallen in love?" What
will you do? You can imitate love, you can act, but you will not be involved in it unless the life force has
thrown you into it. Unless it happens to the life force that you are in love, you cannot love.

The whole life is really a happening. Birth, death, love, all that is significant, is a happening. And if you

move deeper, then even trivial things are happenings. You say, "I have made this house," but even birds are
making their nests. Really, it is something that the life force is doing, not you. Do not think yourself very
intelligent, very powerful, very clever, because you have made this house. Even birds are making such
beautiful nests -- without any training, without any knowledge, without going to any college. It is
instinctive. Life makes its abode.

You go on accumulating riches and you think YOU are doing it. No! The life force goes on

accumulating. Even animals accumulate. Even they try to possess; even they make arrangements for the
rainy season.

If you look deep, then you will find a subtle phenomenon happening within you. Everything is done by

the life force, and everything done by the life force is exploited by the ego. And ego says, "I am doing this,"
and then feels very elated.
This is the parable:

THE STORY GOES THAT BRAHMAN OBTAINED A CERTAIN VICTORY FOR THE DEVAS...

for the deities. In Indian mythology, all the forces of nature are deities. Fire is a deity -- a natural force;

air is a deity -- a natural force. Every natural force is conceived as a DEVATA -- as a deity.

THE BRAHMAN OBTAINED A CERTAIN VICTORY FOR THE DEVAS -- for the deities.

THOUGH THE VICTORY WAS DUE TO BRAHMAN, THE DEVAS BECAME ELATED BY IT AND
THOUGHT: "THIS VICTORY IS DUE ONLY TO US; THIS GLORY BELONGS ONLY TO US."

And this is a constant parable -- the story that is happening to YOU.
The air, the fire, all the natural forces, are also working because of the deeper original source of the

Brahman. Otherwise they could not work. Nothing can exist and nothing can be active unless the elan vital,
the Brahman, is active in it -- the substratum, the original force.

But you are not aware of it. On the surface you go on doing things and you go on thinking that you are

doing it: "I am the cause of it, I am the source of it." You are not the source of it. It is just like the Ganges
flowing to the sea. The Ganges must be thinking that she is flowing to the sea. Is she really flowing, or is
she just part of a greater circle? She will flow to the sea, and then through sunrays the water will rise again
and the water will become clouds. And the air will take those clouds to the Himalayas and they will rain
there on the Gangotri -- on the source of the Ganges. And then the river will be created and it will move; it
will go on moving. It will fall into the sea because it is natural for water to move downwards.

It is not the Ganges flowing to the sea. It is just a natural law, part of the divine, that water moves

downwards. So from the Himalayas, water will move downwards. It is not that the Ganges is moving; the
Ganges cannot have an ego, cannot be allowed to have an ego. It is part of a great circle. Again the water
will fall into the sea, and again the clouds will come, and again they will pour water down the Ganges, on
the Gangotri, and the river will go on flowing. It is a great circle. Clouds, Gangotri, Ganges, the sea --
clouds, Gangotri, Ganges, the sea: it is a great circle. You are also just a part of a great circle. That great
circle of energy is called Brahman.

But the part goes on thinking that "I am doing it." So the devas became elated and they thought:

"THE VICTORY IS DUE TO US ONLY, THIS GLORY BELONGS ONLY TO US."

And one more point, by the way: whenever you get defeated you never say, "This defeat is due only to

us." Whenever you are dishonored you never say, "This dishonor belongs only to me." This is strange! If
glory belongs to you, then why not dishonor? If victory belongs only to you, then why not defeat?
Whenever you are defeated you say, "Circumstances, the situation, the way things are, destiny, the gods, are
against me."

Whenever you are defeated, why do you throw the responsibility onto something else? -- because

through defeat ego cannot be fulfilled. Only through victory can it be fulfilled, so defeat has to be thrown
onto the Brahman. If the gods were defeated, they would certainly have said, "The Brahman is against us,
destiny is against us, fate is against us. That is why we have been defeated." If you are victorious, then you
say that it is because of you.

Look at the trick of the ego. Neither is because of you, or both are because of you. Decide and the ego

will die. If you say, "Both are not because of me: a greater force is working and I am just a particle, an
atomic thing, just a cell, just helpless. Things are happening to me -- I am not a doer, so whether victory
comes or defeat, both belong to the ultimate," your ego will dissolve. Or say, "Both belong to me, victory
and defeat, honor and dishonor" -- then too your ego will disappear, because both are contradictory. They
negate each other. Victory will give you a little ego and defeat will take that little ego away., You will be
just without the ego.

These are the two ways. Hindus have followed the first. They say victory and death and everything

belongs to the divine, to the order of the cosmos. Jainas and Buddhists have followed the second. They say
that there is no God: "Everything belongs to me -- the defeat and the victory, the loss and the gain, the birth
and death, everything belongs to me." Then these two contradictory things negate each other and the ego is
dissolved. In both cases the happening is the same. The ego can persist only if you go on giving all the
victories to it and go on giving all the defeats to the world or to the destiny or to the Brahman. Then the ego
can exist. This is how the ego exists.
The parable says:

BRAHMAN CAME TO KNOW THIS, THEIR VANITY.

He came to know about their egos, that now they are feeling very elated and they are saying THEY are

victorious. It is because of them -- victory belongs only to them.

HE VERILY APPEARED BEFORE THEM. BUT THEY DID NOT UNDERSTAND WHO THAT YAKSHA --
DEMI-GOD -- WAS.

The second part of the parable: whenever the original, the cosmic source, feels that you are feeling

elated, that you are feeling egoistic, it appears before you -- but you cannot recognize it. The ego will not
allow you to recognize it; it will close your eyes. It comes to you also, not only to those devas. This is a
human story, a very psychological parable. Whenever you feel elated, there are happenings around you

which would pull you back down to the earth if you could recognize them. But you never recognize them,
you cannot. Your eyes are now not in reality. Now you are living in a fiction.

So the devas couldn't recognize who this adorable spirit was. The Brahman was standing before them,

the ultimate energy was standing before them. But they were closed. They were in their heads, they were in
their egos, enclosed, encapsulated. They couldn't see, they couldn't understand. Whenever you are in some
egoistic mood, you cannot see anything: you are blind. Whenever you are victorious, you cannot see, you
cannot understand. You lose all your senses. Even your common sense is lost. You are really mad in your
victory, in your success.
THEY ADDRESSED AGNI -- the deities addressed Agni -- and they said, "PLEASE FIND OUT WHO
THIS SPIRIT IS -- who has appeared in this form -- WHO THIS YAKSHA IS." AGNI SAID, "YES, I will
try to find out." AGNI HASTENED TO THE YAKSHA, to the spirit who had appeared. The Yaksha is the
form the Brahman had appeared in.

THE YAKSHA ASKED HIM WHO HE WAS. AGNI REPLIED -- Agni means fire -- AGNI REPLIED: "I AM
VERILY FIRE -- AGNI; I AM ALSO KNOWN AS JATAVEDA -- NEAR -- OMNISCIENT."

"WHAT ENERGY DO YOU POSSESS, YOU OF SUCH FAME?" ASKED THE SPIRIT. "WHAT ENERGY DO
YOU POSSESS, YOU OF SUCH FAME?"

Fire has been very significant. In the old days, fire came to be the top deity, because man lived in

darkness, lived in caves, lived in forests, and it was dangerous. There were animals, and in the dark they
would attack and the night was very fearful. And then Agni, the fire, helped them to come out of the
darkness. Then even night became not so dangerous. So Agni once came to be the top deity. Fire was
worshipped all over the world; fire became the symbol of God.

Hence, the deities asked fire to go first and inquire, "Who is this spirit who has appeared before us?"

And the spirit said: "WHAT ENERGY DO YOU POSSESS?" The emphasis is on YOU. "WHAT ENERGY
DO YOU POSSESS, YOU OF SUCH FAME?"
"I CAN BURN EVERYTHING -- WHATEVER THERE IS ON THIS EARTH," REPLIED THE FIRE.
The emphasis is on "I can burn everything."

THE YAKSHA PLACED A STRAW BEFORE HIM AND SAID, "BURN THIS" -- the Brahman

placed a straw before him and said, "BURN THIS." AGNI APPROACHED IT WITH ALL SPEED... with
full vigor, with totality, with whatsoever he had. HE WAS, HOWEVER, UNABLE TO BURN IT --
because it is not Agni that burns: it is the cosmic force through Agni that burns. Without the cosmic force,
Agni cannot burn, fire cannot burn. And when the Brahman was standing there before him, Agni was
impotent because the source was not there behind it. Now there was only ego; the source had disappeared.
Only the exploiter -- that which has never done anything but which goes on thinking that "I can do this and
that."

Agni could not burn the straw... SO HE WITHDREW FROM THERE AND RETURNED TO THE

OTHER GODS SAYING, "I COULD NOT ASCERTAIN WHO THIS SPIRIT WAS."

He didn't say that he had been a failure, that he couldn't burn it. He simply said, "I COULDN'T

ASCERTAIN WHO THIS SPIRIT WAS."

This is how the ego functions. Even if the divine is standing before you, you will go on saying: I

couldn't ascertain who this spirit was. Even if life reveals to you that your ego is impotent, you will not
realize it. Life goes on revealing to you that your ego is impotent -- is it not so? Every moment life goes on
saying to you, "Don't claim. You are not the doer." But you never look at it.

THEN THEY ADDRESSED VAYU -- the air force, the deity of air: "O VAYU, PLEASE

ASCERTAIN THIS, WHO THIS YAKSHA IS." "YES," SAID VAYU.
VAYU HASTENED TO THE YAKSHA. THE YAKSHA ASKED HIM WHO HE WAS. VAYU
REPLIED, "I AM VERILY VAYU -- AIR. I AM ALSO KNOWN AS MATARISVA -- CARRIER OF
THE
ATMOSPHERE."
"WHAT ENERGY DO YOU POSSESS, YOU OF SUCH FAME?" ASKED THE SPIRIT. "I CAN
VERILY BLOW AWAY EVERYTHING, WHATEVER THERE IS ON THIS EARTH," REPLIED
VAYU.
THE YAKSHA PLACED A STRAW BEFORE HIM AND SAID, "BLOW THIS AWAY." VAYU
APPROACHED IT WITH ALL SPEED; HE WAS, HOWEVER, UNABLE TO BLOW IT AWAY.

"WITH ALL SPEED" -- your ego can act with all speed but nothing will happen out of it. Your ego can do
something with all speed, all effort, but nothing will happen out of it. Remember this; this will be helpful.

People come to me and they go on saying, "I am making such an effort to meditate, but nothing is

happening." Nothing will happen because the 'I' is making the effort. You are not allowing the divine to
happen within. YOU are trying to do something.

You are impotent. Whatsoever potency you have comes through the original source, from the cosmos,

from the Brahman. It doesn't belong to you. You are just a vehicle. So when the 'I' starts trying something,
then nothing happens.

In Zen monasteries they teach the seekers only one secret, and the secret is: do something without

bringing the 'I' into it. If you can do something without bringing the ego into it, everything will happen.

Herrigel, one German thinker, was in a Zen monastery in Japan. He was learning archery there, and the

master said, "Allow the life force to aim and allow the life force to release the arrow. You do not do
anything."

It was difficult, really impossible -- and particularly for a German mind that is basically

intellect-oriented. That is why the experience of Germany proved so fatal: too much intellect, too much ego,
too much effort. Then the ego came to a point where it said to the German people, "Now you can be
victorious all over the world." Hitler was just the expression of all the minds -- ego-oriented.

Herrigel was unable to understand: "If I do not release the arrow, how can the arrow be released? If I am

not making an effort, there will be no effort at all."

And this is how we would feel also. For three years he was there with the master. He learned the art

completely -- as completely as possible. His aims were a hundred percent right. The arrow would always
reach the target. But the master went on shaking his head. He said, "This is nothing."

A hundred percent results, and the master would say, "This is nothing; you have not learned anything.

You are still releasing the arrow. And we are not interested in the target, we are interested in you. We are
not interested in the other end, we are interested in you. YOU are the target. That target is not the target.
When the arrow is released without you, when the life force has taken possession of you, only then"...
because archery is not the point: meditation is the point.

The master said, "Even if you miss -- even if you miss the target completely -- that is irrelevant. But you

should not miss the original source."

Herrigel was desperate. And the more desperate he was, the more effort he made. The more he tried, the

more the master would say, "You disappoint me."

Then a day came when Herrigel thought, "This is impossible, it cannot happen. Three years is too long a

time, making so much effort every day." He felt frustrated. He said to the master, "Now allow me to leave. I
think this is not for me. It seems impossible to conceive. I have done whatsoever I could but nothing
happens."

The master said, "Because YOU were doing whatsoever you could, you were not allowing the life force

to do anything. YOU are the barrier."

Herrigel decided to leave. The day he was leaving, he came just to say goodbye to the master. The

master was training another disciple. Herrigel just sat there. For the first time he was indifferent because
now he was leaving, and he had left the whole effort, and there was no point in it. He sat silently and just
saw the master without the eyes of desire, ambition, achievement. He just saw the master, and for the first
time in three years he could realize that the master was not releasing. It was the life force. The arrow was
released by something which was not coming from the ego. It was coming from a deeper energy.

He stood as if hypnotized. He came near the master, took the bow from his hand and released the arrow,

and the master said, "Right! You have done it." And Herrigel writes, "I now know the difference between
when the life force releases it and when you do it."
"WHAT ENERGY DO YOU POSSESS, YOU OF SUCH FAME?" ASKED THE YAKSHA. Vayu tried to
show his energy. VAYU APPROACHED IT WITH ALL SPEED. HE WAS, HOWEVER, UNABLE TO
BLOW IT AWAY. SO HE WITHDREW FROM THERE AND RETURNED TO THE GODS SAYING, "I
COULD NOT ASCERTAIN WHO THIS YAKSHA WAS."

And it was so clear! There was no need to ascertain. The whole thing was so clear. Vayu tried to blow

away a straw and he could not. And the fire tried to burn a straw. He could have burnt the whole earth, and a
single straw was not burnt. The thing was so clear: the Yaksha was the original source of energy.

But they couldn't recognize that the energy had been taken away, that now they were just vehicles --

empty. The fire could not burn a straw, the Vayu could not blow a straw. It was so clear to realize that the
original source had withdrawn. But they couldn't recognize it.

Ego is really so blind that it never recognizes its impotency. Even when the source has moved away, it

goes on thinking in old terms. Even when everything is defeated and everything is a failure, it goes on
thinking in old terms.

THEN THE GODS ADDRESSED INDRA.

Indra is the chief of the gods in Indian mythology. They asked Indra:

"OH INDRA, PLEASE ASCERTAIN WHO THIS SPIRIT IS." "YES," SAID INDRA, AND HASTENED
TO THE YAKSHA. BUT THE YAKSHA DISAPPEARED FROM HIS VIEW.

When Indra approached the Yaksha, the Yaksha disappeared from his view.
The word Indra is very meaningful; it comes from the same root as the word INDRIYA. Indriya means

the senses and Indra means the chief of the senses -- the head. What is the chief of the senses? The mind.
All the senses -- your ears, your eyes, your hands -- are just subordinate to the mind. Mind is really Indra in
the body, so mind is the chief deity.

Eyes belong to fire and all your senses belong to some deity, but your mind belongs to Indra. Indra

means the chief of the indriya -- all the senses. So when all the deities, senses, failed, they asked the head,
the brain, the mind. But what happened? This is beautiful, this parable is just wonderful. When the senses
approached the deity, the ultimate, the Brahman, he was there -- but when mind approached, he disappeared.

With mind you cannot see him, with mind he is not approachable. When mind tries to find out who the

ultimate source is, it becomes invisible. It is not visible for the mind. For the intellect, the ultimate becomes
invisible. That is why science never finds any divine element. Science cannot find it because science is the
Indra -- the mind, the intellect, the reason.

The spirit disappeared from Indra's view. If you bring your mind to find, there is nothing to find. It

disappears. One more point is to be understood. You can feel God through the body, you can feel God
through taste, you can feel him through smell, but you cannot feel him through the intellect -- through the
reason. Even through the senses he is approachable. If you become more sensitive you can touch him. But
through the intellect he is absolutely unapproachable. Intellect is not the door at all.

If you have a sensitive body you can live in God, you can breathe him. But no matter how keen an

intellect you have, you cannot touch him, you cannot come near him. If you simply bring intellect in, he is
no more there; he simply disappears.

AND IN THAT VERY SPOT HE, INDRA, BEHELD A WOMAN, THE WONDROUSLY EFFULGENT UMA, THE
DAUGHTER OF THE SNOW-CLAD MOUNTAIN, HIMAVAT. AND OF HER HE ASKED, "WHO COULD THIS
YAKSHA BE?"

With the mind, if you bring mind in, if you bring reason in, the ultimate disappears. And what happens?

This parable gives many clues, many dimensions. When the ultimate disappears, then only sex remains the
source of all. Then you feel that sex is the source of all energy. When you cannot feel the divine as the
source, you feel sex as the source of all energy.

Science proved that there is no God, and then came Sigmund Freud, and he said there is only woman --

or you can say there is only man if you are a woman. Science cleared the ground and God became invisible.
Whenever there is no God, only sex remains to be the God. Then you feel that everything is because of sex;
Freud says so. If Freud could have known about this parable, he would have understood. This parable is a
criticism, a deep criticism, of his whole ideology. When there is no God, sex becomes the God.

A beautiful woman appeared before Indra, and he asked that woman, "Uma, who was this who has

disappeared?" Now psychologists are asking sex: What is the origin of life? They are penetrating into sexual
energy and trying to know something about the original source of life through sex, through the door of sex.

With intellect, you cannot penetrate deeper than sex. Sex is, of course, part of that great energy. But

with mind alone you become acquainted with the part, not with the original source. And mind gets
entangled with sex. The whole Western mind is now entangled with sex. It has become a labyrinth. You
cannot move out of it. Wheresoever you move, you come back again and again to it.

Everything is now reduced to sex. Freud says that if a mother loves a child it is sex; if a father loves his

child it is sex. If a father loves his daughter it is heterosexual; if the father loves his son more it is
homosexual.

Just now, a few days ago, I was reading a book. The book is written by a psychoanalyst, and he says that

it is possible that Jesus was a homosexual because he always moved with his twelve apostles -- with boys.
Always moving with boys means homosexuality. Somewhere I have read some other psychoanalyst who
wrote that Buddhist monks must be homosexual because they are always living in the company of men.
Everything is reduced to sex if mind is the approach.

Before Indra, before mind, the ultimate disappeared.

AND IN THAT VERY SPOT HE BEHELD A WOMAN, THE WONDROUSLY EFFULGENT ONE, THE
DAUGHTER OF THE SNOW-CLAD MOUNTAIN, HIMAVAT. AND OF HER HE ASKED: "WHO COULD THIS
YAKSHA BE?"

This is what we are asking -- asking sex what this life is.

The Supreme Doctrine

Chapter #13

Chapter title: Man Can Be Transcended

14 July 1973 pm in Mt Abu Meditation Camp

Archive code: 7307145

ShortTitle: DOCTRN13

Audio:

Yes

Video:

No

Length: 104 mins

The first question:

BELOVED OSHO,
IN THE WEST, PSYCHOANALYSIS HAS GROWN THROUGH FREUD, ADLER, JUNG AND WILHELM
REICH, TO SOLVE THE PROBLEMS ARISING FROM THE EGO SUCH AS FRUSTRATIONS, CONFLICTS,
SCHIZOPHRENIA AND MADNESS. IN COMPARISON TO YOUR MEDITATION TECHNIQUES, PLEASE
EXPLAIN THE CONTRIBUTIONS, LIMITATIONS AND INCOMPLETENESS OF THE SYSTEM OF
PSYCHOANALYSIS IN SOLVING THE HUMAN PROBLEMS ROOTED IN THE EGO.

The first thing to be understood is that any problem rooted in the ego cannot be solved without

transcending the ego. You can postpone the problem, you can bring in a little normality, you can create a
little normalness about it, you can dilute the problem but you cannot solve it. You can make a man function
more efficiently in the society through psychoanalysis but psychoanalysis never solves a problem. And
whenever a problem is postponed, shifted, it creates another problem. It simply changes its place, but it
remains there. A new eruption will come sooner or later and when the new eruption of the old problem
comes it will become more difficult to postpone and shift it.

Psychoanalysis is a temporary relief because psychoanalysis cannot conceive of anything which

transcends ego. A problem can be solved only when you can go beyond it. If you cannot go beyond it, then
YOU are the problem. Then who is going to solve it? Then how is one going to solve it? Then you are the
problem; the problem is not something separate from you.

Yoga, tantra and all meditation techniques, they are based upon a different ground. They say that the

problems are there, the problems are around you, but you are never the problem. You can transcend them;
you can look at them like an observer is looking down from the hill into the valley. This witnessing self can
solve the problem. Really, just by witnessing a problem it is half solved already because when you can
witness a problem, when you can observe it impartially, when you are not involved in it, you can stand by
the side and look at it. The very clarity that comes out of this witnessing gives you the clue, gives you the

secret key. And almost all problems are there because there is no clarity through which to understand them.
You do not need solutions: you need clarity.

A problem rightly understood is solved, because a problem arises through a nonunderstanding mind.

You create the problem because you are not understanding. So the basic thing is not to solve the problem:
the basic thing is to create more understanding. And if more understanding, more clarity is there, and the
problem can be encountered impartially, observed as if it doesn't belong to you, as if it belongs to someone
else; if you can create a distance between the problem and you -- only then can it be solved.

Meditation creates a distance, it gives you a perspective. You go beyond the problem. The level of

consciousness changes. Through psychoanalysis you remain on the same level. The level never changes;
you are adjusted on the same level again. Your awareness, your consciousness, your witnessing capacity,
doesn't change. As you move in meditation you go higher and higher. You can look down at your problems.
They are now in the valley, and you have come to a hill. From this perspective, this height, all the problems
look different. And the more the distance grows, the more you become capable of observing them as if they
do not belong to you.

Remember one thing: if a problem doesn't belong to you, you can always give good advice on how to

solve it. If it belongs to someone else, if someone else is in difficulty, you are always wise. You can give
very good advice but if the problem belongs to you, you simply do not know what to do. What has
happened? The problem is the same but now you are involved in it. When it was someone else's problem,
you had a distance from which to look at it impartially. Everyone is a good advisor for others but when it
happens to oneself then all your wisdom is lost because the distance is lost.

Someone has died and the family is in anguish: you can give good advice. You can say the soul is

immortal; you can say nothing dies, that life is eternal. But someone has died whom you loved, who means
something to you, who was near, intimate, and now you are beating your breast and crying and weeping.
Now you cannot give the same advice to yourself -- that life is immortal and no one ever dies. Now it looks
absurd.

So remember, while advising others you may look foolish. When you say to someone whose beloved

has died that life is immortal, he will think you stupid. You are talking nonsense to him. He knows what it
feels like to lose a beloved. No philosophy can give consolation. And he knows why you are saying this
thing: because the problem is not yours. You can afford to be wise; he cannot afford it.

Through meditation you transcend your ordinary being. A new point arises in you from where you can

look at things in a new way. The distance is created. Problems are there but they are now very far away -- as
if happening to someone else. Now you can give good advice to yourself, but there is no need to give it. The
very distance will make you wise. So the whole technique of meditation consists of creating a distance
between the problems and you. Right now, as you are, you are so much entangled with your problems that
you cannot think, you cannot contemplate, you cannot see through them, you cannot witness them.

Psychoanalysis helps just for readjustment. It is not a transformation; that is one thing. And another

thing: in psychoanalysis you become dependent. You need an expert and the expert will do everything. It
will take three years, four years, or even five years if the problem is very deep, and you will become just a
dependent -- you are not growing. Rather, on the contrary, you are becoming more and more dependent.
You will need this psychoanalyst every day or twice a week or thrice a week. Once you miss him you will
feel lost. If you stop psychoanalysis you will feel lost. It becomes intoxicating, it becomes alcoholic.

You start being dependent upon someone -- someone who is an expert. You can tell your problem to

him and he will solve it. He will discuss it, and he will bring the unconscious roots out of you. But HE will
do it; the solving will be done by someone else.

Remember, a problem solved by someone else is not going to give you more maturity. A problem solved

by someone else may give HIM some maturity but it cannot give you maturity. You may become more
immature. Then whenever there is a problem, you will need some expert advice, some professional advice.
And I do not think that even psychoanalysts grow mature through your problems because they go for
psychoanalysis to other psychoanalysts. They have their own problems. They solve your problems but they
cannot solve their problems. Again the question of distance.

Wilhelm Reich himself tried again and again to be psychoanalyzed by Sigmund Freud. Freud refused to

psychoanalyze him and all his life he felt hurt because Freud refused him. And Freudians, orthodox
Freudians, never accepted that he was an expert because he himself had not been psychoanalyzed.

Every psychoanalyst goes to someone else with his own problems. It is just like the medical profession.

If the doctor himself is ill he cannot diagnose himself. He is so near that he is afraid, so he will go to

someone else. If you are a surgeon you cannot operate upon your own body -- or can you? The distance is
not there. It is difficult to operate upon one's own body. But it is also difficult if your wife is really ill and a
serious operation is to be done -- you cannot operate because your hand will tremble. The intimacy is so
much that you will be afraid, you cannot be a good surgeon. You will have to take advice; you will have to
call some other surgeon to operate on your wife.

What is happening? You have been operating; you have done many operations. And now what is

happening? You cannot do it on your child or your wife because the distance is so little -- as if there is no
distance. Without distance you cannot be impartial. So a psychoanalyst can help others but when he is in
trouble he will have to take advice, he will have to be psychoanalyzed by someone else. And this is really
strange that even a person like Wilhelm Reich goes mad in the end.

We cannot conceive a buddha going mad -- or can you conceive of it? And if a buddha can go mad, then

there is no way out of this misery. It is inconceivable that a buddha goes mad.

Look at Sigmund Freud's life. He is the father and founder of psychoanalysis; he went on talking about

problems very deeply. But as far as he himself was concerned not a single problem was solved. Not a single
problem was solved! Fear was as much a problem for him as for anybody else. He was so afraid and
nervous. Anger was as much a problem for him as for anybody else. He would get so angry that in anger he
would fall unconscious in a fit. And this man knew so much about the human mind but as far as he himself
was concerned, that knowledge seems of no use.

Jung himself would fall unconscious when in deep anxiety; he would have a fit. What is the problem?

Distance is the problem. They had been thinking about problems but they had not been growing in
consciousness. They thought intellectually, keenly, logically, and they concluded something. Sometimes
those conclusions may have been right, but that is not the point. They did not grow in consciousness, they
did not become in any way superhuman. And unless you transcend humanity, the problems cannot be
solved; they can only be adjusted.

Freud said, in the last days of his life, that man is incurable. At the most we can hope that he can exist as

an adjusted being; there is no other hope. This is at the MOST! Man cannot be happy, Freud says. At the
most we can arrange it so that he is not very much unhappy. That's all. But he cannot be happy; he is
incurable. What type of solution can come out of such an attitude? And this is after forty years' experience
with human beings! He concludes that man cannot be helped, that man is naturally, by nature, miserable,
that he will remain in misery.

But yoga says that man can be transcended. It is not man who is incurable; it is his minimal

consciousness that creates the problem. Grow in consciousness, increase in consciousness, and problems
decrease. They exist in the same proportion: if there is a minimum of consciousness, there is a maximum of
problems; if there is a maximum of consciousness, there is a minimum of problems. With total
consciousness, problems simply disappear just like the sun rises in the morning and dewdrops disappear.
With total consciousness there are no problems because with a total consciousness problems cannot arise.
At the most psychoanalysis can be a cure, but problems will go on arising; it is not preventive.

Yoga, meditation, goes to the very depth. It will change you so that problems cannot arise.

Psychoanalysis is concerned with problems; meditation is concerned with you directly. It is not concerned
with problems at all. That is why the greatest of Eastern psychologists -- Buddha, Mahavira or Krishna -- do
not talk about problems. Because of this, Western psychology thinks that psychology is a new phenomenon.
It is not!

It was just in this century, in the first part of this century, that Freud could prove scientifically that there

is such a thing as the unconscious. Buddha talked about it twenty-five centuries before. But Buddha has
never tackled any problem because, says Buddha, problems are infinite. If you go on tackling every
problem, you will never REALLY be able to tackle them. Tackle the man himself. Just forget the problems.
Tackle the being itself and help the being to grow. As the being grows, as it becomes more conscious,
problems go on dropping; you need not be worried about them.

For example, a person is schizophrenic, split, divided. Psychoanalysis will deal with this split -- with

how to make this split workable, with how to adjust this man so that he can function, so that he can live in
the society peacefully. Psychoanalysis will tackle the problem, the schizophrenia. If this man comes to
Buddha, Buddha will not talk about the schizophrenic state. He will say, "Meditate so that the inner being
becomes one. When the inner being becomes one, the split will disappear on the periphery." The split is
there -- but it is not the cause, it is just the effect. Somewhere deep in the being there is a duality and that
duality has made this crack on the periphery.

You go on cementing the crack but the inner split remains. Then the crack will appear somewhere else.

Then you cement that crack; then somewhere else the crack will go on appearing. So if you treat one
psychological problem, another problem arises immediately; then you treat another and a third arises.

This is good as far as the professionals are concerned because they live off it. But this is not a help. The

West will have to go beyond psychoanalysis and unless the West comes to the methods of growing
consciousness, of inner growth of being, of expansion of consciousness, psychoanalysis cannot be of much
help.

Now, this is happening already: psychoanalysis is already out of date. The keen thinkers of the West are

now thinking about how to expand consciousness and not about how to solve problems -- about how to
make a man alert and aware. Now this has come; the seeds have sprouted. The emphasis has to be
remembered.

I am not concerned with your problems. There are millions and it is just useless to go on solving them --

because you are the creator and you remain untouched. I solve a problem and you will create ten. You
cannot be defeated because the creator remains behind them. And as I go on solving, I am just wasting my
energy.

I will push aside your problems; I will simply penetrate YOU. The creator must be changed. And once

the creator is changed, the problems on the periphery drop. Now no one is cooperating with them, no one is
helping to create them, no one is enjoying them. You may feel this word strange but remember well that you
enjoy your problems; hence you create them. You enjoy them for so many reasons.

The whole of humanity is sick. There are basic reasons, basic causes, which we go on overlooking.

Whenever a child is sick he gets attention; whenever he is healthy no one gives him any attention.
Whenever a child is sick, the parents love him -- or at least they pretend. But whenever he is okay, no one is
worried about him. No one thinks to give him a good kiss or a good hug. The child learns the trick. And
love is a basic need and attention is a basic food. For the child, attention is even more potentially necessary
than milk. Without attention something will die within him.

You may have heard about new experiments in one English laboratory, Delabar, where they are

experimenting with plants. Even plants grow faster if you give them attention -- just look at them lovingly.
Two plants are used for the experiment. Give one plant attention, love -- just a smiling, loving approach --
and to the other do not give any attention. Give everything else necessary water, fertilizers, sunrays; give
everything equally to each but to one give more attention. To the other do not give any attention; whenever
you pass nearby just don't look at it. And you will see that the one grows faster, brings bigger flowers, and
the other grows in a delayed way and brings smaller flowers.

Attention is energy. When someone looks lovingly at you he is giving you food -- a very subtle food. So

every child needs attention and you give attention only when he is ill, when there is some problem. So if the
child needs attention he will create problems, he will become a creator of problems.

Love is a basic need. Your body grows with food, your soul grows with love. But you can get love only

when you are ill, when you have some problem; otherwise no one is going to give you love. The child learns
your ways; then he starts creating problems. Whenever he is ill or with a problem, everyone gives attention.

Have you ever observed? In your house the children are playing silently, peacefully. Then if some

guests come they start creating trouble. This is because your attention goes to the guests and now the
children are hankering for attention. They need your attention, your guests' attention, everybody's attention
toward them. They will do something, they will create some trouble. This is unconscious but then it
becomes a pattern. And when you are grown up, you still go on doing it.

For women, it is true that ninety-nine percent of their illnesses, their mental problems, are basically love

needs. Whenever you love a woman, she has no problems. Whenever there is some problem in love, many
problems arise. Now she is hankering for attention. And psychoanalysts are exploiting this need for
attention, because a psychoanalyst is a professional attention-giver. You go to him: he is a professional. For
one hour he looks at you attentively. Whatsoever you say, whatsoever nonsense, he listens as if the Vedas
are being preached. And he persuades you to talk more, to say anything, relevant or irrelevant, to bring your
mind out. Then you feel so good.

You know, ninety-nine percent of patients fall in love with their psychoanalysts. And how to protect the

client-expert relationship is a great problem because sooner or later it becomes a lovers' relationship. Why?
Why does a woman patient fall in love with a male psychoanalyst? Or the reverse: Why does a male patient
fall in love with a woman psychoanalyst? The reason is that so much attention is given for the first time.
The love need is fulfilled.

Unless your basic being is changed, nothing will come out of solving problems. You have an infinite

potential to create new ones. Meditation is an effort to make you independent, first; and second, to change
your type and quality of consciousness. With a new quality of consciousness old problems cannot exist:
they simply disappear. For instance, you were a small child; you had a different type of problem. When you
became older they simply disappeared. Where have they gone? You never solved them, they simply
disappeared. You cannot even remember what the problems were that belonged to your childhood. But you
have grown and those problems disappeared.

Then you were a little older, you had a different type of problem; when you become old they will not be

there. Not that you will be able to solve them -- no one is able to solve problems -- one can simply grow out
of them. When you are old you will laugh at your own problems which were there, so urgent, so destructive
that you had many times contemplated committing suicide because of them. And then when you have grown
old, you will simply laugh: Where have those problems gone? Have you solved them? No -- you have
simply grown. Those problems belonged to a particular state of growth.

Similar is the case as you grow deeper into consciousness. Then too problems go on disappearing. A

moment comes when you are so aware that problems do not arise. Meditation is not analysis. Meditation is
growth. It is not concerned with problems; it is concerned with the being.

The second question:

BELOVED OSHO,
LAST NIGHT YOU SAID THAT WE SHOULD EITHER BELIEVE IN WHATSOEVER YOU SAY AS TRUE, OR
WE SHOULD DISBELIEVE YOU TOTALLY, TAKING WHAT YOU SAY AS UNTRUE, AND THAT BOTH
WAYS WILL HELP US. BUT WHAT IS TO BE DONE BY THOSE PERSONS WHO ARE NOT CAPABLE OF
BEING TOTAL IN EITHER WAY? IS THERE ANY THIRD ALTERNATIVE POSSIBLE IN THIS MATTER?

There is none and there cannot be. The third is already your state. These two are the alternatives to come

out of that; the third you are already -- confused. You can only come out of this confusion with any total
effort. Why is it difficult to be total either in belief or disbelief? Why is it easy to be in the middle? --
because if you are in the middle, then no change is needed: you are already there. And if you go on thinking
about what to believe and what not to believe, your mind remains the same. It is your mind which chooses
what to believe and what not to believe. You choose according to your mind.

Then how can this mind change? If your mind is the chooser, it will choose something which can

become a food to it. It will go on discarding all that can be destructive to it or that can help it to change. The
mind tries to remain in the status quo. It wants to remain static, because with change there is pain,
insecurity. You will have to adjust everything again, every arrangement will have to be made again. It will
be difficult.

So mind is basically orthodox, even the minds of those who think themselves revolutionary. Mind is

orthodox, so every revolution becomes an orthodoxy in the end. All the revolutionaries turn out ultimately
to be dogmatists. Every revolution ends in a static society. Why does is happen? -- because the very nature
of the mind is to be orthodox, to cling to the old. So if I say something, you can choose: you can choose that
which will help you remain as you are. You will say, "This is true." To that which will lead you to a
transformation -- to an unknown state, in insecurity, on an uncharted path, on an unknown journey and
voyage -- you will say, "This is not true."

So you can go on choosing; this is what you have been doing. So I say to you, "Be total!" Then change

is bound to be there, the revolution will happen. When I say, "Believe totally in me," or, "Do not believe at
all," I do not say, "Believe in me," I say, "Be total." Half-hearted, you will never move anywhere. And how
can you decide what is true and what is untrue? There is more possibility that whatsoever you think is true
will be untrue, or vice versa, because if you already know what is true, then there is no need -- no need to
come to me or anybody else. There is no need at all! But the mind goes on playing tricks.

One young man was here today to meet me. I told him, "Take a jump -- a jump into sannyas."
He said, "I have been hearing J. Krishnamurti and I cannot be committed to anything." But he is not

aware that he is already committed to J. Krishnamurti.

J. Krishnamurti says, "Do not be committed," so he is not committing himself. He has taken the advice;

he has already become a follower. His mind is working a trick. It is thinking that now there is no need to
follow anybody.

You have already become a follower but this is unconscious. You are not clear about what has happened

to you. And this will not be of much help because this is unconscious. Unless it becomes conscious.... I say
that if you feel Krishnamurti is right, then be committed to him consciously and totally. But make it
conscious because only that which is conscious can be of help in transmutation, in transformation. That
which is unconscious cannot be of much help. Or, if you think that you should not commit yourself to
anyone, then you will have to safeguard your independence in many ways. Then there is no need to go to J.
Krishnamurti or to me or to anyone else because the very effort of going shows that you need help -- that
someone else is needed.

But you can go on playing with yourself; you can go on thinking, "I am just listening. I will choose:

whatsoever is true I will believe; whatsoever is not true I will not believe" -- as if you have a criterion to
judge what is true and what is not true. How will you judge it? Either you know it, then there is no need to
go; or you do not know it, then you cannot judge.

Buddha used to say, "Do not ask me questions. Rather, do whatsoever I say, and after a year of doing I

will allow you to ask questions. But for one year, do whatsoever I say. For this one year do not be a
chooser; follow me totally. And after one year, when you have become clear, conscious, then you can ask,
then you can choose because then you will have something like a criterion to judge by -- a touchstone." But
it almost always happened that after one year's deep meditation, when Buddha would say, "Now you can
ask and now I allow you to choose," the man would say, "Now I have nothing to ask and now I have
nothing to choose."

When I say to you, "Take a jump into sannyas," I mean this: for the time being do not be a chooser. This

is not going to be for your whole life but for the time being do not be a chooser, so that your mind is not
allowed to come in. Do whatsoever I say. After a year of sincere effort of doing, I will allow you to choose.
Then you can choose, then you can think. Then you have something by which you can judge. Right now
you cannot judge but you go on judging.

I am happy with both types of people: those who can say, "I believe totally" -- I can work with them --

and those who say, "I do not believe at all" -- I can leave them to themselves. But for the confused types
who go on saying, "Some things I can believe and some things I cannot believe," nothing can be done. And
they go on hanging around me -- I cannot help them. They are unnecessarily wasting their time because they
cannot take my help. They won't allow it. They are wasting time; they are missing an opportunity.
Something would have been possible very easily if they were available but they are not available. And they
say they will judge. They can go on thinking but they will never come to any conclusion.

You cannot come to any conclusion because your mind is confused. And if you choose out of confusion,

you will be more in confusion. Any conclusion out of confusion will lead you into more confusion. A
confused mind cannot choose. That is the meaning of surrender: when you feel you are confused, you go to
someone; you feel that he has a clarity. I say, "You feel" -- it is not that you think. If you feel that someone
has a clarity that you do not have, then surrender. This is risky, dangerous, but one has to take the risk
because without risk there is no possibility.

If you are too wise and clever and you do not want to take the risk, you will miss for your whole life and

you will not come to any point of realization. Risk is basic. It is risky -- because you cannot be absolutely
certain whether the person to whom you are surrendering is really true or not. It is risky but try it. If he is
not true then too you will have gained something because he cannot lead you anywhere. If he is not true and
you risk your total being to him, you will become aware of what an untrue master is and you will never fall
in the same trap again. But if he is true, then you will come to a new dimension of being. Nothing is lost; the
risk is worth taking.

But you are clever -- your cleverness is your barrier. Be a little foolish and take a jump; do not be so

clever. You have already missed much by being clever. There are certain points where only fools, madmen,
lovers, can enter; there are certain doors. Clever men never go there. It happens that through certain risks
fools prove to be wise and the wise prove to be fools because fools can take the risk and the so-called wise
cannot take it.

There is no alternative, no third alternative; these are the two possibilities. The third alternative is that

which you are already. So if you think that the third is good, remain whatsoever you are; do not think of any
change.

If you think that whatsoever you are is too much of a misery, a hell, then take a jump out of that hell.

And the jump is always into the unknown, so risk is there; it is implied. Be a little daring, a little foolish.

When Buddha left his palace he was foolish. Even the driver who led him out of his kingdom told him.

The name of the driver was Chhanna. Chhanna said to Buddha, "You are committing a foolish act. It is too

risky: losing an empire, losing a kingdom, for something which is very vague. No one knows whether any
soul really exists. It is foolish to lose that which you have for that which is uncertain."

Buddha would not listen to him. That man was old, more wise, so he said to Buddha, "You are young,

and because of your youth you are not yet mature enough to understand what you are doing. Come back!
Everyone is trying to get into that palace which you are leaving. And where are you going -- to be a beggar?
If beggars could have achieved, then the whole world would have been beggars. And there are beggars on
the streets and they have not achieved. Where are you going? You are taking a risk."

Leaving the known for the unknown is always a risk. Buddha said, "I am fed up with the known. I have

known it; now there is nothing more to know. So allow me to take the risk. Even if I lose, I lose nothing
because I do not have anything. If I gain, I gain everything. The risk is worth taking. I cannot lose anything
because I do not have anything. Those palaces and those beautiful wives, I have lived with them, I have
known them. Now nothing is there to know. No mystery is there. Now it has become a boredom, a
repetition, a habit. I have become a mechanical thing. Now there is nothing to go back to. I will take the
risk. If I lose, I lose nothing because I do not have anything."

What have you got that you are so much afraid of surrender? What have you got? You are just like a

naked man who is afraid of taking a bath in the river because he is thinking, "Where will I go to dry my
clothes?" And he is nude, he has no clothes, but he is not entering the stream to take a bath because he is
afraid that there is no place where he can dry his clothes. What have you got to lose? And there is every
possibility to gain -- but I say 'possibility': that is the risk.

Religion is not for weaklings, it is only for those who have a strong will to move into the unknown.

Weaklings always remain confused because they go on traveling in two boats simultaneously -- in two
directions. They cannot move in one boat because they are afraid. And they are very clever, so they think
that if one goes wrong at least the other will always be there. So they travel in two boats but they never
reach anywhere because you cannot travel in two boats.

There is no third alternative. You will have to decide this or that; only then does a revolution set in. The

old will have to die for the new to be born and there can be no compromise.

The old cannot continue in some form in the new; it has to be dropped completely. Religion is both a

death and a rebirth. And when I say to you: Choose one, be total in your choice, it is going to be a death --
that is the fear. But unless you die you cannot be reborn.
The last question:

BELOVED OSHO,
I AM FEELING COMPLETELY HELPLESS ABOUT EVERYTHING -- LIFE, HEALTH, MEDITATION -- AND
EVEN HELPLESS TO SURRENDER TOTALLY. EVERYTHING I CAN DO IS ALWAYS PARTIAL.
UNCONSCIOUS FACTORS CONTROL MUCH AND MY EFFORTS AND ATTEMPTS AT NO-EFFORT ARE
POWERLESS AGAINST THEM. I FEEL I WANT TO LEAVE IT ALL TO YOU BUT THAT TOO IS ONLY
POSSIBLE AS MUCH AS I AM CONSCIOUSLY CAPABLE. AND THEN TOO I AM AWARE THAT THE
ULTIMATE HAPPENING MAY OR MAY NOT HAPPEN IN THIS LIFE AND THAT I CANNOT ASK WHEN IT
WILL HAPPEN IF I LEAVE IT TO YOU. CAN I JUST ADOPT AN ATTITUDE OF LEAVING IT TO YOU EVEN
THOUGH I AM AWARE OF THE POSSIBILITY THAT THE HAPPENING COULD TAKE LIVES ANYWAY? IS
THIS STILL SURRENDER EVEN THOUGH NOTHING HAPPENS AS A RESULT OF IT?

Three things: one, by 'total' I mean whatsoever is possible; I do not mean the whole. You cannot

surrender the whole right now, because you are not the whole, so how can you surrender the whole? By
'total' I mean that which you can: don't withhold anything. That which you can: your whole capacity -- not
your whole being because you are not that so how can you surrender it? But let all that you can do be
included in the surrender.

It is going to be partial -- partial in the sense that your whole being will not be involved in it. You have

an unconscious part. You cannot bring that into it; it is impossible for you. You do not even know what it is,
where it is, how it functions and how it can be brought into the surrender. You cannot do it. Do not leave
anything undone of whatsoever you can do. By 'total' I mean surrender with all your conscious capacity.
Through this surrender, by and by, the inner being will come up and will be included in it.

In the beginning it can only be in this way. So do not wait until you are ready to surrender the whole

being because then there will be no need to surrender -- because when you have already become whole there
is no need to surrender. Surrender is a technique to become whole. So take a jump as you are and as much
as you can; that is all.

Secondly, do not be worried about when it will happen. It can happen the next moment, it may not

happen for lives together. It depends. It CAN happen the next moment. If your jump is intense, total, if you
have put into it whatsoever you could, it can happen the next moment. But if you withhold something, then
it will take time. It can take lives together. But even if it happens in many lives it is early because already
you have been alive for millions of lives and it has not happened.

So even if it takes a few lives it is not too much; it is early. Do not be worried about it because even that

worry will become a barrier to total surrender and that worry will create an inner condition. Knowingly or
unknowingly you will be expecting it to happen soon. That will become a desire and that desire will become
a barrier.

So do not think about what will happen; do not make a condition. Let it happen unconditionally. Say

deeply within your heart, whenever it happens, "I am not." And if it does not happen, say, "Whether it
happens or not I am still ready to surrender." Then it will happen very soon. It can happen in the very
surrender itself; it may not take a single moment.

I will tell you one story, one very old Hindu parable. Two sannyasins are meditating under two trees,

and Narada passes by. Narada is a messenger between the two worlds, 'this' and 'that'; he moves between
both. He goes on carrying news from here to there and from there to here.

He passes the first monk who is very old, who is doing deep austerities and who has been working for

salvation for many lives. The monk asks, "Narada, are you going to the other world? Then ask the divine
how much time I still need, how much more time I will have to exist in this body. It is too much! I have
been working for many lives. Now how much time is left for the ultimate transformation? Please ask it."

The way the old monk asks this is very tense, full of lust, full of conditions, as if he is complaining. He

feels already he has been making arduous efforts for too many lives -- as if some injustice has been done to
him. The tone, the very way, is of complaint.

Narada passes by the second tree. A young man is dancing there, singing, celebrating his ecstasy. He

doesn't even look at Narada. Narada stands there. The young man sees him but he goes on dancing. So
Narada himself asks him, "Don't you have any question? The other monk under your neighboring tree has
asked. Would you like me to bring news for you too about when your salvation is going to happen?" The
man goes on dancing and he doesn't say anything.

Narada goes to the other world. He comes back. He says to the old monk, "I asked God, and he said

three lives more."

The old monk was chanting on his MALA, his beads. He threw away the beads and said, "Three lives

more!" He got very angry and disappointed.

Narada reached the other tree. The young man was still dancing. Narada said, "Though you didn't ask

me to ask, still I asked. But I am afraid to tell you, because that old man has thrown his beads and is so
angry and disappointed. I am afraid to tell you!"

The young man said, "Still you can say it because whatsoever is, is blissful and whatsoever happens is

good. You can tell me; do not be worried."

So Narada said, "I asked God and he said that you will have to be born as many lives as there are leaves

on the tree under which you are dancing."

The young man became so full of ecstasy. He said, "Just this many leaves? So few? -- because the earth

is so full of leaves, infinite leaves!" He again started dancing and it is said that immediately, that very
moment, he disappeared from the earth.

This is surrender. This is total acceptance -- no complaints, no conditions, no expectations. Immediately

he was liberated; that very moment he was liberated.

I do not know about the old monk; nothing is said. But I do not think three lives will be enough for him.

He must be somewhere here also, still working.

The Supreme Doctrine

Chapter #14

Chapter title: Knowing All Through the One

15 July 1973 am in Mt Abu Meditation Camp

Archive code: 7307150

ShortTitle: DOCTRN14

Audio:

Yes

Video:

No

Length: 66 mins

INVOCATION

"THAT YAKSHA WAS BRAHMAN," SAID UMA. "IT WAS THROUGH THE VICTORY OF BRAHMAN,
INDEED, THAT YOU ACHIEVED THIS GLORY." IT WAS FROM THAT -- FROM THE WORDS OF UMA --
THAT INDRA UNDERSTOOD THAT THE YAKSHA WAS BRAHMAN.
THEREFORE, VERILY, THESE GODS -- AGNI, VAYU, AND INDRA -- EXCEL ALL OTHER GODS, FOR
THEY APPROACHED THE YAKSHA NEAREST; THEY WERE THE FIRST TO KNOW HIM AS BRAHMAN.
AND, THEREFORE, INDEED, INDRA EXCELS THE OTHER GODS, FOR HE APPROACHED THE YAKSHA
NEAREST; HE WAS THE FIRST TO KNOW HIM AS BRAHMAN.
THIS IS THE TEACHING REGARDING THAT -- BRAHMAN. IT IS LIKE A FLASH OF LIGHTNING; IT IS LIKE
A WINK OF THE EYE. THIS IS WITH REFERENCE TO THE ADHIDAIVATAM -- ITS ASPECT AS COSMIC
MANIFESTATION.
NOW ITS DESCRIPTION WITH REFERENCE TO THE ADHYATMA -- ITS ASPECT AS MANIFESTED IN
MAN: MIND PROCEEDS TO BRAHMAN IN ALL SPEED, AS IT WERE. BY HIS MIND ALSO, THIS
BRAHMAN IS REMEMBERED AND IMAGINED AS ALWAYS NEAR.

The mind is abstract. It cannot touch, it cannot see, it cannot hear. It can only think. Thinking is abstract.

Thoughts move just in a vacuum. Thoughts have no substance. They cannot be touched, cannot be heard,
cannot be felt. So mind is the most abstract faculty in man and when this abstract faculty tries to reach the
truth, it can only think about it. It cannot realize it, it cannot feel it. It can only contemplate about it. The
approach is going to be indirect. Senses are direct; mind is indirect.

Indra represents the mind; Agni represents the eyes; Vayu, air, represents the ears. Remember this. Ears

are the part which is related to the cosmic existence of air. Eyes are the part in man related to the cosmic
existence of fire or sun.

Vayu approached Brahman, Agni approached Brahman: they could see, they could hear. They could be

in more substantial touch with the ultimate reality but they could not recognize. The Brahman was present
but the senses could not recognize who he was. For the recognition the mind is needed; only mind can
recognize. But then a problem arises: mind cannot approach directly. Mind approaches indirectly. Mind
cannot penetrate reality because mind is an abstract sense. It can only think. Through thinking it can
recognize but then the reality disappears. It becomes only a thinking inside. Indra could recognize but not
directly because when Indra approached, the Brahman, the spirit, disappeared.

So the first thing to be understood is that mind is an indirect process. Senses are direct: I can touch you

with my hand but I cannot touch you with my mind. I can see you through my eyes but I cannot see you
through my mind. Mind is enclosed within me and there is no bridge from the mind to reach you directly. If
the mind wants to reach you directly, some medium will be needed. If the mind wants to see you, it will see
through the eyes. To touch you, it will touch through the hands. A medium, an agency, a mediator, will be
needed. Mind needs a mediator.

So whatsoever knowledge mind can give, it can never be immediate. This is one of the findings of the

Eastern mind, that mind cannot give you immediate knowledge of anything. A mediator will be there and
knowledge will come through a means, through a medium. There is no direct penetration from the mind into
reality. Senses are direct but they cannot recognize. Mind can recognize but it is indirect. So unless mind
and senses both are in a deep harmony, you cannot know reality.

Agni approached alone, Vayu approached alone, Indra approached alone. They all were failures.

Brahman was present to Agni, but then Agni had no mind to think, to recognize, to remember; he could not
come to any conclusion as to who he was. Indra could recognize but he had no direct possibility to know
who he was. The Brahman disappeared before the mind.

So the first thing: if mind is the way to know the reality, the reality will disappear. That is why for

science there is no Brahman. Science is Indra -- mind working. So science goes on denying. Science says
there is no spirit in you, no ATMAN, soul, and no Brahman, no cosmic soul, in the universe. This is a
mental approach, abstract. But a very deep phenomenon happens in this parable: Brahman disappears and a
woman, one of the most beautiful of women, Uma, appears.

Whenever mind tries to penetrate the mystery of life, Brahman will disappear and sex will appear. For

the mind sex is the nearest to Brahman, the closest possibility to know the life force. Why? Sex is the
nearest to the mind for many reasons. One, Brahman is the cosmic life force and sex is your individual life
force. Brahman is outside you; sex is within you. To feel Brahman, senses will be needed. To understand
sex you can close your eyes and understand it. It is a reality within you. Or, you can say that the Brahman
has penetrated you in the shape of sex. It has become sexual energy within you. It is the individual
counterpart of the cosmic life force.

You can understand Brahman through mind only as sex. So whenever abstract thinking reaches to its

climax, Brahman disappears and sex becomes the sole reality. It has happened before many times; it is
happening right now in the contemporary world. It happened in India and because of that happening tantra
was born. Tantra means to forget the Brahman completely; just penetrate the sexual energy to its very core
and you will come to Brahman.

Tantra was born because India reached to an intellectual climax, to the same climax that now Western

countries have reached. India has known that climax -- the climax of conceptualization and philosophy.
India reached to a very sophisticated state of mind where the Brahman disappeared and the life force
became the sex force -- appeared as the sex force.

Tantra preaches that there is really no God to be approached directly. Unless you penetrate the mystery

of sex, unless you go deep into it, you cannot know Brahman. And this is also symbolic, that sex appears
before Indra in the form of Uma. Uma is the consort of Shiva, and Shiva is the greatest tantric. Uma is the
counterpart. In that deeper experience of the life force, Shiva is male, Uma is female. To Shiva, Uma is the
source of the life force, the door toward cosmic phenomena. To Uma, Shiva is the door to the cosmic
phenomena. And when Uma and Shiva meet in a deep orgasm, they lose themselves and the cosmic energy
alone vibrates.

You have seen the SHIVALINGA -- it is not alone, it is also with the YONI of Uma. The shivalinga is

placed in the yoni of Uma. The shivalinga is phallic, and just underneath is the pudenda-the yoni. The
shivalinga is the symbol of sexual orgasm and meeting. Through this meeting the individuals disappear and
the cosmic is revealed.

Before Indra, Uma appeared; before mind, sex appeared. This is how I decode it. And Indra asked Uma,

"Who was this spirit?" When mind reaches to its climax, it can only ask sex energy, "Who is this cosmic
force?"

Inside man, mind is one pole and sex is another pole. You exist between two poles. In your head is the

thinking force, the reason, the mind. And just on the other pole is sex. On your backbone these are the two
poles. Scientists say that your brain is just an extension of your backbone, the spine. On one pole exists sex
energy, on the other pole exists reasoning. These are the two poles of your spine, and your spine is your
existence. You exist through your spine. When reason comes to its climax, you become polar. You have
moved to one extreme, and it is absolutely abstract. And sex is the most substantial; it is not abstract at all.

Through eyes you can see, through hands you can touch, through ears you can hear; but through the sex

center you penetrate most deeply. No eyes can penetrate that much, no hands can touch that much, no ears
can hear that much. Through sex you penetrate into the mystery of the other to the very depth. Sex is a
deeply penetrating force. Mind never penetrates anything directly; sex penetrates only directly. Sex has no
abstraction about it; mind has no substantiality about it. So sex is the earth within you; mind is just the sky.
Sex is the root within you; mind is the flower.

So whenever mind wants to know what the life force is, what the Brahman is, there is only one way and

that is to come back to the roots, because those roots are in the cosmos, those roots are deep in the cosmic
life energy. Through sex, mind can move backwards to the very source. If you go on thinking, then you
move around and around in the mind and there is no way to go out. You can create big philosophies, great
systems, but they will be all concepts, words, verbalization; they cannot be realities. Mind can know only if

mind falls back to the roots, goes down to the very source. And through that source the Brahman can be
known.

Now again the world has come through Western search to a point where mind has become supreme.

Hence, so much interest, so much research and so much philosophizing about sex in the West. God has been
pushed aside. Now the basic problem is not God in the West: the basic problem is sex. And if this mystery
can be penetrated, only then can God again become a living problem. So Western thinkers are continuously
thinking about the mystery of sex -- what it is.

Uma appeared before Indra and Indra asked Uma, "Who was this force? Who was this spirit? Who was

this presence which has disappeared before me?" This is what mind asks the sex force: "What is life? What
is God? What is Brahman?" Asking the sex center is tantra. Tantra means the yoga of sex. This can be said
as a prophecy -- that for the coming, future generations only tantra can be helpful because only tantra knows
the secrets of how to ask Uma, how to ask the sex center, sex energy, about the ultimate source of energy.

And Uma answered. "THAT YAKSHA WAS BRAHMAN," SAID SHE. Uma answered that that

presence was Brahman.

Two things that sex can answer: for a man a woman is the answer and for a woman the man is the

answer. If you can rightly ask, sex can become for you the deepest answer possible. But there are dangers. If
you cannot ask rightly, then sex will prove to be a misery for you. Then sex will become for you the greatest
fall. If you can rightly question, then sex can become for you the deepest secret to be known. But if you
wrongly question, then sex will become the greatest fall possible. This is bound to be so because sex has a
height. If you travel toward that height wrongly, you will fall.

Christianity understands sex to be just a fall, and tantra thinks sex to be the right answer. Christianity

and tantra are just opposed to each other. Not only Christianity: Jainism and many other religions are also
opposed to sex. They are opposed for a reason. The reason is the fifty percent possibility of falling down. It
is dangerous.

So try to travel in some other way where this fifty percent fall is not a possibility. And it is

mathematically fifty percent. Actually it is ninety-nine percent, because sex is such an attraction and sex is
such an unconscious force that it is difficult to remain alert, meditative. While experimenting in it, you will
become unconscious. And if you become unconscious in orgasm it leads you nowhere.

Ninety-nine percent is the possibility that you will fall through sex. Only one percent is the possibility

that you may rise. But tantra says that that percentage of fall can be reduced through right techniques and a
man or a woman can be trained. Then making love becomes an art -- the greatest art. And if you know the
art, then you approach very cautiously, very delicately. And then it is not just a temporary release, a relief. It
becomes a sacred worship.

So tantra trains people first to be nonsexual. Tantra teaches first to come to a point where sex is not a

madness for you. Tantra first teaches you to be totally unattached, without desire. A nude woman, a
beautiful woman will be sitting before a tantric seeker, a SADHAK, and he has to contemplate on her, on
her beauty, but as a divine force. And he has to go on watching inside that no lust arises. If lust arises the
point is lost.

This is the most difficult thing. For months together the seeker is to practice going beyond lust. And

when a beautiful woman appears just like a beautiful flower and he has no lust in the mind, only then will
the master allow the seeker to approach this beautiful woman without lust, to enter this woman without lust.
Then it becomes a meditation, and the orgasm becomes cosmic. Then individuals are not there because
individuals exist through desire, lust and passion. Then love happens and this love is prayer. And through
each other they have entered the greater depth that encompasses all.

Sex can give you the answer and if you have become too intellectual then ONLY sex can give you the

answer. Any intellectual age will have to ask through sex. If you have moved too much in the head you will
have to fall back to the other extreme. Only then do your two opposites within meet and you become a
unity.

UMA SAID, "THAT YAKSHA WAS BRAHMAN."

Through deep sex experience, meditative sex experience, you will come to know that this sex energy is

nothing but divine energy. Then sex becomes samadhi.

UMA SAID, "IT WAS THROUGH THE VICTORY OF BRAHMAN, INDEED, THAT YOU ACHIEVED THIS
GLORY." IT WAS FROM THAT THAT INDRA UNDERSTOOD THAT THE YAKSHA WAS BRAHMAN.

The mind cannot understand directly. Sex becomes the mediator: Uma becomes the medium. And

through that medium Indra could understand who that spirit was, who that presence was. Mind needs a
mediator because mind is abstract and reality is not abstract. Only through a mediator, a transformer, can
mind come in contact with reality.

Greek philosophy lost its path only because of this-because they depended totally on mind and reason

and they thought nothing else was needed: go on thinking and through thinking the truth will be achieved. It
has not been achieved yet. Greek philosophy goes on. It has changed its land, it has changed its abode. It has
traveled through the whole Western history of thought.

The river that was born in Athens has traveled through Berlin, through Paris, through London, through

New York. It has been going on and on... but it simply gives more words. It gives Hegel and Kant, it gives
Berkeley and Hume, it gives Russell and Wittgenstein -- words and words and words. It cannot produce a
Buddha, it cannot produce a Jesus -- it cannot produce experience. And now the West is becoming
interested in tantra. That may be the turning-point. The head comes back to the roots.

Through Uma, Indra could understand that the Yaksha was Brahman, that this presence which had

disappeared, which was now not visible -- and instead of it Uma was visible, a beautiful woman, a sex
symbol was visible -- was Brahman. Sex can give you the answer to what the reality of life is because sex is
the most alive thing in you. Mind is the most dead thing in you and sex is the most alive thing in you. That
is why mind is always against sex, and mind is always for suppressing it. They are enemies. Mind is a dead
thing and sex is the life force; they go on fighting. And whenever you move into sex, the mind feels
frustrated and the mind says, "This is wrong. Do not move into it again!"

The mind becomes the moralizer, the mind becomes the puritan, the mind becomes the priest. The mind

goes on condemning. All that is alive the mind goes on condemning and all that is dead the mind goes on
worshipping. And sex is the most alive thing in you because life comes through it: you are born through it,
you can give birth through it. Wherever there is life, aliveness, sex is the source. Not only in man: these
trees are also sexual. Flowers are nothing but maturing seeds; they are sexual. The animals are sexual.

Now scientists feel that sex even penetrates matter because there too there is a polarity of the feminine

and the masculine. Even in the deepest atom, there exists a force as positive and there exists a force as
negative. And those two forces create all that is there. The constant fight between those two forces and the
constant meeting -- the fight and meeting, the attraction and repulsion -- creates energy. The whole
existence is a creation between two opposing forces. So whenever you are nearest to life, you are nearest to
sex. Or vice versa: whenever you are nearest to sex, you are nearest to life. You are young when sex energy
is young; you are old when sex energy is old.

Now scientists say, biologists say, that if we can replace the sex glands, only then can old age be

stopped -- because if the sex glands are young, then the whole body will be young. If the sex glands are old,
then you cannot do anything to make the body young.

There has been a constant effort.... All the medical researchers all over the world have been trying to

make man live longer but now the right point has been touched. The sex glands become old first and then
your whole body follows. Your sex glands become youthful first and then your whole body follows. So
really it is not a question of the whole body, it is only a question of the sex center. If the center is young you
are nearer to life; if the center is old you are nearer to death.

Some day or other -- it is possible now -- we will be able to replace the sex glands. Once we are able to

replace the sex glands, man can live younger forever. The body will follow. The body is just an expression.
You may not have thought about it but the sex center is the center of your whole body. The whole body is
just a circle around it. Biologists say the whole body exists for the sex center to survive. The body is just a
situation in which sex hormones can live and survive. The sex glands are not for the body: the body is for
the sex glands.

Once the sex energy has traveled and given birth, the body goes on becoming old. Once the sex energy

is exhausted, the body has to be discarded. Now the abode is not worth living in. Now the energy will find
another body to live in. Now the energy will find another more alive, younger body to live in so that the life
force can continue on and on.

You see a fruit: deep in the fruit are the seeds. The fruit exists only to protect the seeds, to give life,

energy, food, to the seeds. The seeds are not existing for the fruit. The fruit exists just to protect so that the
seeds can survive. And once the seeds are ready, the fruit is useless. The fruit will ripen, fall down, because
the only need was just for the seeds. When the seeds are ready to sprout as a new life, the fruit will become
ripe and fall down from the tree. Why does the fruit fall down from the tree? -- because the seeds now want

to move into the ground. Now they are ready. They want to move into the earth, into the womb.

When you feel sexual you think you can control it just by thinking. But you cannot because now the

seeds are ready to move into a woman -- and those seeds are struggling to move. So whatsoever you do, just
by using your mind you cannot do anything because deep down the mind exists for the seeds, not the seeds
for the mind. They will struggle and they will defeat you. They will move out of your body because your
body has been just an abode -- a fruit. Now the seeds are ready. They want to move out of your body. They
will move anyhow. If you do not make love to a woman, they will move in your dreams. But now they want
to move out. They are ready -- ready to live in another body, ready to give life a further push.

Unless you understand this sex center and unless you do something deep within the center, you cannot

attain brahmacharya -- you cannot become a celibate. The so-called brahmacharis are just so-called. They
may not be making love to women: that is not difficult. But the seeds of semen are going out; they cannot be
contained. They are not honest, so they will not say anything. A person who is honest will say.

Mahatma Gandhi has said -- and he was one of the most honest men -- that even at the age of seventy he

was having wet dreams. He has said, "I have come away from sex as far as my conscious mind is concerned
but the moment I fall asleep I cannot do anything. In dreams, sexual imagery comes in and the semen moves
out." He was honest.

Sex energy can be transformed only when sex becomes the door to the cosmic. And once you know the

secret that sex can become the door to the cosmic, you have the key -- and that key only can make you a
brahmacharin. Why? -- because now you can give birth to a higher sort of life. Now the sex energy can give
birth to a higher sort of life but it MUST give birth. If there is no higher movement, then it will move in a
lower world. But it will move! Energy needs movement.

Tantra has discovered certain secrets by which a higher form of life is created through sex -- not only

bodies but a higher form of energy. And once you know how to create that energy, sex disappears as sex. It
starts moving in a higher dimension.

Tantra says -- and tantra has techniques which have been proved right for all those who have

experimented with them -- that when a woman and a man are in an orgasm, ordinarily the orgasm is a
release: the man ejaculates and the orgasm ends. But tantric orgasms are without ejaculation. Simply, the
two energies meet -- not on the physical plane: the energies meet on a psychic plane. And when they move
deeper they meet on a spiritual plane and that meeting becomes the door. Then energy starts moving. It
becomes creative; it gives birth to you on a new plane. With every higher movement of sex energy, you are
born on a higher level; you go on becoming superhuman. Sex can become the answer: that is the message of
the parable.
Uma said that this Yaksha was Brahman himself.
"IT WAS THROUGH THE VICTORY OF BRAHMAN, INDEED, THAT YOU ACHIEVED THIS
GLORY."

So whatsoever man achieves, he achieves because of the life force. At the lowest that life force is known

as sex energy; at the highest the life force is known as the Brahman. And the mind can approach only the
lowest. That is why Uma appeared. And only from that lowest, mind can move by and by to the highest. The
lowest will become the medium.

IT WAS FROM THAT -- FROM THE WORDS OF UMA -- THAT INDRA UNDERSTOOD THAT THE YAKSHA
WAS BRAHMAN.
THEREFORE, VERILY, THESE GODS -- AGNI, VAYU AND INDRA -- EXCEL ALL OTHER GODS, FOR
THEY APPROACHED THE YAKSHA NEAREST; THEY WERE THE FIRST TO KNOW HIM AS BRAHMAN.

Three gods -- Agni, Vayu, Indra. Agni is represented by your eyes in your body, Vayu is represented by

your ears in your body, Indra is represented by your mind in your body. Your body is a miniature cosmos.
Whatsoever is in the cosmos is in your body. You are a small representative of the whole cosmic existence,
of the whole phenomenon.

So now let us decode these symbols. Agni, Vayu and Indra excel all other gods. Whatsoever you know

about Brahman is known either through the ears or through the eyes or through the mind. You have heard
about him: it is through the ears -- Vayu. All the scriptures, they are for the ears -- the god Vayu. All the
SMRITIS, SHRUTIS -- all that has been known and recorded, is recorded for your ears.

Ears can give you a glimpse, the first glimpse, but if all the scriptures are destroyed and no one says

anything to you about God, still your eyes will feel. Your eyes will come to a glimpse of something
unknown that is hidden everywhere. That is why we call our rishis, seers, DRASHTA -- because it is

through the eyes that they had the first glimpse.

Hence, in this parable, Agni approaches Brahman first. Agni approaches Brahman first: that is, eyes

give you the first glimpse. You cannot recognize, of course but they touch the reality. They have a feeling
that something is there, unrecognized. When eyes have known or felt or come to a contact, only then can
whatsoever is heard become meaningful. So scriptures will not be of much help unless your own eyes have
started to penetrate the reality around you. When you can see something, then scriptures become true. Only
through your own seeing do scriptures become true.

So next Vayu approaches Brahman -- but even through the eyes or through the ears, you will not be able

to recognize. Only then can your mind be of help. But when mind approaches it is abstract and the Brahman
disappears.

There have been philosophers who have believed only in the eyes: for example, CHARWAKAS. They

say PRATYAKSHA -- that which is before the eyes -- is the only reality. They believe only in the eyes, so
they say whatsoever is seen is real and because God is not seen, God is unreal.

There are philosophers, for example, MIMANSAKAS, who say that whatsoever is heard about him is

true -- the Vedas are true -- and he cannot be known otherwise; the Vedas are the last authority. They
believe in the God Vayu. And then there are the rationalists -- those who say, "Only through mind can you
know; there is no other way to know." Rationalists exist all over the world. They say that only through
reason can you approach the reality.

These are the three doors: through the eyes, through the ears, through the mind. And then there is the

fourth, tantra, which says that the mind must approach through sex; only then will you know the reality.
This sutra says:

THEREFORE, VERILY, THESE GODS -- AGNI, VAYU AND INDRA -- EXCEL ALL OTHER GODS, FOR
THEY APPROACHED THE YAKSHA NEAREST; THEY WERE THE FIRST TO KNOW HIM AS BRAHMAN.
AND THEREFORE, INDEED, INDRA EXCELS ALL OTHER GODS, FOR HE APPROACHED THE YAKSHA
NEAREST; HE WAS THE FIRST TO KNOW HIM AS BRAHMAN.

So mind is the nearest, but only through a mediator. Alone, it moves in a circle, never reaching

anywhere.

THIS IS THE TEACHING REGARDING THAT -- BRAHMAN. IT IS LIKE A FLASH OF LIGHTNING; IT IS LIKE
A WINK OF THE EYE. THIS IS WITH REFERENCE TO ITS ASPECT AS COSMIC MANIFESTATION.
NOW ITS DESCRIPTION WITH REFERENCE TO ITS ASPECT AS MANIFESTED IN MAN: MIND
PROCEEDS TO BRAHMAN IN ALL SPEED, AS IT WERE. BY HIS MIND ALSO, THIS BRAHMAN IS
REMEMBERED AND IMAGINED AS ALWAYS NEAR.

So the whole parable comes to a particular conclusion. You can try to approach the ultimate reality

through the senses; you will touch it but you will not be able to recognize it. You can approach the ultimate
reality through mind: now you are capable of recognizing it, but it will disappear before you.

Your reason has to be tethered to the life force within you. Your reason must become total with your life

force; it must not function as separate. Your head must not function as something separate from your life
energy; it must be rooted in it. And you must move into the cosmos with your mind clear and with your life
energy joined to it, together. Your life energy will become the mediator. Your mind will be on this side. In
between your mind and the Brahman will be the life energy. And only through that life energy, Uma, will
you be able to know and recognize both.

The experience of the ultimate has to happen through you as a whole. You cannot approach it through

parts. All parts will be failures. All your parts must become a whole when you approach the ultimate; only
then will you be able to know it.

This is a key. It is the whole meaning of the parable. You must approach the ultimate as a total, a whole,

with all your senses included, your reason included, your life force, sex included; nothing should be
excluded. You should not approach in fragments. You should approach the ultimate as a unity -- integrated,
one.

Then there will be two phenomena. As lightning the cosmic will appear before you -- as if suddenly the

darkness has disappeared and there has been lightning, and everything is seen in a flash. Whenever you are
a unity, suddenly lightning happens. The very unity of your being becomes the situation in which the whole
cosmos becomes lightning. All darkness disappears. In a single moment everything is revealed.

Remember well that the ultimate is not revealed in parts; hence, the use of lightning. If you move in a

deep dark forest with a lamp, then that forest will be revealed in parts. Sometimes you will see some trees,

and then you will move ahead, and then some other trees will be seen. But those trees which you had seen
before will disappear. They will move into darkness. With a lamp, if you move in a dark forest, only in parts
will the forest be revealed to you. The Brahman is never revealed in parts but you are standing in a dark
forest. Then suddenly there is lightning in the clouds and the whole forest is revealed in a single flash.

So you cannot say, "I have known Brahman five percent, ten percent, fifteen percent." Whenever you

know, you know one hundred percent. Either you know one hundred percent, or you don't know. You
cannot know the ultimate in parts. It is indivisible. Just like lightning, when you are ready the ultimate
reality is revealed. And it is revealed in such a short time that it cannot be called a fragment of time.

So two things: as space Brahman is revealed totally and as time it is revealed without a single moment.

It is like a wink of the eye -- as if you have winked: only that much time. Really, no time -- as a flash, as
lightning, the whole space, the whole phenomenon of Brahman is known, and without a single moment of
time. It is not divided either as space or as time.

You are hearing me. I will say a sentence, then time will pass. Then I will say another sentence and time

will pass. You cannot hear me totally; there is no possibility. Time will be there. You will hear me in
fragments.

But Brahman is heard without time; Brahman is known without time. Hence, the Upanishads call him

eternal, timeless, beyond time, KALATEET -- beyond time, beyond space. Time and space both disappear
in a single moment of meeting. Everything is revealed. That is why the Upanishads say that by knowing one
all is known. By knowing one all is known! That one is the Brahman. Enter into it as a total unity.

J. Krishnamurti goes on talking in abstract terms. The whole approach seems to be mental, as if only

mind is to be used. The body need not be involved in it, emotions need not be involved in it: only the
abstract mind, as if Brahman is a mathematical problem. It is not, it is an organic problem.

Listening to Krishnamurti you are listening to the mind -- the purest mind. You will feel good.

Listening, you will feel that you are understanding. Listening, you will feel that you are reaching
somewhere. But you are learning only new words. You will learn 'awareness' -- the word, not awareness
itself. You will learn 'choicelessness' -- the word, not choicelessness. And they will go on in the mind, and
they will move in the mind, and you will become just a mind -- a cerebral center. Your emotions are not
touched; your body remains untouched. Only your mind is touched.

That is why Krishnamurti has been a failure. He is himself enlightened but he has been a failure. His

whole life he has been working with the mind and whatsoever he says is true but it is not applicable because
you are not only the mind: you are much more. And that "much more" has to be transformed with the mind.
You have to be transformed as a totality.

You must not only think about God: you must also dance about him. You must not only conceptualize:

you must also have emotions about him. You must eat him, you must breathe him, you must walk him, you
must dance him. You must come as a totality, as an organic whole. And when you come as an organic
whole, undivided, the undivided is revealed to you. If you come divided, the undivided cannot be revealed
to you. When you are undivided, you become a mirror for the undivided. You mirror it; it is reflected in
you. When you are divided, then everything you look at is divided.

It is just like a lake. There are waves on it and the full moon is in the sky. But the full moon cannot be

reflected on the lake. The lake is disturbed, so the lake will know the full moon in fragments. It will be
scattered all over the lake in parts. Then the lake becomes silent and the waves disappear. Not even ripples
are there. Now the lake becomes a mirror -- undivided, undisturbed. The full moon is reflected in it.

The only thing that is needed is to make you indivisible, without waves and ripples and without

fragments, to make you one unity. Your body, your emotions, your thinking, all must become one --
integrated. Then you will reflect the divine in a flash, like lightning, with no time lost. The whole will be
revealed to you. And by knowing one, all is known.

The Supreme Doctrine

Chapter #15

Chapter title: Now You Can Go

15 July 1973 pm in Mt Abu Meditation Camp

Archive code: 7307155

ShortTitle: DOCTRN15

Audio:

Yes

Video:

No

Length: 70 mins

The first question:

BELOVED OSHO,
DO HINDU MYTHOLOGICAL GODS, LIKE SHIVA, UMA AND INDRA HAVE A REAL EXISTENCE ON SOME
PLANE, OR ARE THEY JUST SYMBOLS AS YOU IMPLIED IN YOUR TALKS THE LAST TWO MORNINGS?
AND IF THEY ARE REALLY ONLY SYMBOLIC, WHY DO PEOPLE SEE VISIONS OF THEM IN
MEDITATION AND WHAT DO SUCH VISIONS OF GODS MEAN?

Mythology deals with symbols. It is not history; it is not concerned with objective reality. But that does

not mean that it is not concerned with reality itself. It is concerned with subjective reality. These gods, these
mythological symbols, do not exist outside you but they have a psychological existence and that
psychological existence can be helpful, can be used. So the first thing to be understood is that they are not
real persons in the world but they are real symbols in the psyche of man.

For example, Carl Gustav Jung came very near to discovering the secret of these symbols. He was

working on mental patients, disturbed persons. He would tell his patients to go on painting things,
whatsoever came to their minds. A person who is schizophrenic, divided, split, will paint certain things and
the painting will show a particular pattern. All schizophrenic patients will paint certain things and the
pattern will be the same. And when they get over their illness, their disease, they will start painting different
things and that will happen to every patient. Just by seeing their paintings you can say whether the patient is
ill or not.

Then Jung became aware that whenever a person who has been suffering with a divided personality

again becomes one, undivided, he starts painting something like a mandala -- a circle. That circle, that
mandala, shows somehow a deep relationship with his own inner circle that has been regained. Now, inside,
he has become a circle, joined together. He has become one. Then in his paintings suddenly circles will
erupt. So Jung came to conclude that your inner mind can express certain things in a certain state. If the
state of mind changes, then your visions will change, your expressions will change.

Hindu mythological gods are certain visions of a certain state of mind. When you come into that state of

mind, visions start happening to you. They will have a similarity. All the world over they will have a
similarity. There will be minor differences because of culture, education, training, but deep down there will
be a similarity.

For example, the mandala is one of the mythological symbols. It has been recurring all over the world.

In old Christian paintings it is there. In old Tibetan paintings it is there. In Chinese, Japanese and Indian art
the circle has a fascination. Somehow, when your sight becomes circular, when it becomes a current, joined
together, undivided, you begin to see a circle in your vision, in your dreams. That circle represents your
reality. In the same way, all symbols represent inner subjective realities. And if a society gives a particular
shape to a deity, it becomes very helpful. It becomes very helpful for the seeker because now he can decode
many inner visions.

Freud inaugurated a new era in the West by interpreting dreams. Before Freud, in the West, no one was

really interested in dreams. No one thought that dreams could have some meaning or that dreams could have
some reality of their own or that they could have some secret keys which could open the personality of men.
But in India it has always been known. We have always been interpreting dreams. And not only dreams,
because dreams are ordinary: we have also been interpreting visions. Visions are the dreams of those
persons who are meditating and changing their consciousness. They are also dreams. In ordinary
consciousness dreams happen and now Freudian psychology has come to conclude that a particular pattern
of dreams shows a particular meaning.

For example, a person goes on seeing in his dream that he is flying in the sky, that he has become a bird.

He goes on flying: over hills, mountains, rivers, oceans, cities, he goes on flying. Freud says this type of
dream, a dream of flying, happens to the mind which is very ambitious. Ambition becomes flying in dreams.
You want to be above everyone -- above hills, above everyone. If you can fly, you will be above everyone.
Ambition is an effort to fly above everyone. In dream, ambition becomes a pictorial image of flying.

Sexual dreams have a similar pattern all over the world. When boys become sexually mature they will

start dreaming of holes, tunnels. Those holes, tunnels, are symbols of the feminine sex center, of the vagina.
Girls will start seeing phallic symbols -- pillars or minarets -- in their dreams. And this happens all over the
world: all over the world there is no distinction; this happening is similar. Phallic symbols will come to girls
and hole-like symbols will come to boys.

If in a particular sexual state particular dreams happen, they have a reality. That reality is subjective. It

is just the same when you enter meditation: you are entering a different state of consciousness. Then
particular visions will start happening. They are also dreams but we call them visions because they are not
normal. Unless you achieve a certain state in meditation they will not happen. They show that something is
happening within. They project your inner realities on the screen of the mind in a pictorial way.

Remember that your unconscious mind does not know any language. Your unconscious mind knows

only the most primitive language and that is of pictures. Your conscious mind has learned language symbols
but the unconscious mind still remains pictorial just like a small child. It converts everything into pictures.

So, for example, Shiva's shivalinga has many meanings. One I told you about this morning, that it is the

very source of life energy -- a sex symbol. But that is only one meaning. The shivalinga is egg-shaped --
white and egg-shaped. It happens in a particular state of meditation that this appears before you: a white
egg-shaped thing filled with light. Light is coming out of it, rays are coming out of it.

Deep down, whenever you become cool, silent, and the whole being loses heat, this symbol appears.

That is why the mythological story is that Shiva lives on the Himalayas, the coolest place in the world,
where everything is cool. Just look at a shivalinga -- a marble shivalinga. Just by looking at it you will feel a
certain coolness entering in you. That is why above a shivalinga a pot is to be held continuously, and from
that pot drops of water go on dropping on the shivalinga. It is just to make it cool. These are symbols just to
give you a feeling of coolness.

In Kashmir there is one shivalinga, a natural shivalinga, which arises automatically when snow falls. It

is a snow shivalinga. Just by dropping of snow in a cave a shivalinga is formed. That shivalinga is the best
one for meditation because it is so cool all around that it gives a glimpse of the inner happening -- when
the shivalinga appears within your consciousness, when it becomes a picture, a symbol, a vision.

These symbols have been found through centuries and centuries of work and effort. They indicate a

certain state of mind. To me all mythological gods are meaningful subjectively. Objectively they are
nowhere to be found. And if you start trying to find them somewhere objectively, then you will become a
victim of your own imagination -- because you can find them; you can project them so strongly that you can
find them.

Human imagination is such a forcible thing, it has such a tremendous force within it, that if you imagine

something continuously you will start feeling it around you. Then you can see it, then you can realize it. It
will become an objective thing. It is not objective but you will feel it as existing outside you. So it is
dangerous to play with imagination because then you can be hypnotized by your own imagination and you
can come to see and feel things which are not. This is creating a private fantasy, a dreamworld; this is a sort
of madness. You can see Krishna, you can see Christ, you can see Buddha, but this whole effort is wasted
because you are moving in dreams and not in reality.

Hence, my insistence to always remember that these mythological figures are symbolic. They are

meaningful, they are poetic, they are a certain language. They say something, they imply something but they
are not objective personalities. If you can remember this, then you can use them beautifully. They can be of
much help. But if you think of them as objective, they will be harmful and by and by you will move into a
dreamworld and you will lose contact with the reality. And to lose contact with the reality is to go mad. Be
constantly in contact with reality. Still, do not allow the objective reality to kill the inner and the subjective.
Be alive and alert in the inner world but do not mix them.

This is happening: either we allow the objective reality to kill the inner and the subjective, or we allow

the subjective to project a dreamworld on the objective, and then the objective disappears. These are two
extreme viewpoints. Science goes on thinking in terms of the objective and goes on denying the subjective.
Religion goes on talking about the subjective and denying the objective.

I am totally different from both. My emphasis is that objective is objective and let it remain objective.

Subjective is subjective and let it remain subjective. Keep their purities and you will be saner for it. If you
mix them, if you confuse them, you will become insane, you will lose balance.
The second question:

BELOVED OSHO,
YESTERDAY YOU SPOKE OF PSYCHOANALYSIS AND THE PHENOMENON OF PATIENTS FALLING IN
LOVE WITH THEIR ANALYSTS. ANALYSIS CALLS THIS PHENOMENON TRANSFERENCE AND TRIES
TO MAKE IT HAPPEN ON PURPOSE. THROUGH THIS TOTAL PROJECTION OF ONE'S FEELINGS OF
LOVE ONTO THE ANALYST, A PERSON GROWS AND LEARNS TO LOVE IN A HEALTHIER WAY. IS NOT
THIS CONCEPT THE SAME AS THAT OF SURRENDER IN THE EASTERN TRADITION? IS IT NOT
POSSIBLE THAT FREUD DISCOVERED ITS VALUE THROUGH SOME ESOTERIC LEAK?

Yes, transference can be helpful but not with an analyst. It can be helpful with a master. It can be helpful

only if the person with whom you fall in love has himself gone beyond lust, has himself solved all his love
problems. If you fall in love with a master.... By 'master' I mean one who has gone beyond attachment, lust,
who has gone beyond all problems of love.

Otherwise the transference is going to be double. The patient is transfering, projecting, his own love

need onto the doctor and the doctor is projecting his own love need onto the patient. And a doctor who has
his own love need cannot be of much help. Really, he himself is ill, and two ill persons cannot help each
other to be healthier. This is again going to be a frustration, not a growth in love.

Love can only grow if the other person has grown beyond ordinary problems, the ordinary conflict of

love. What is the problem of love? The one problem is that the moment you are in love with someone you
are also in hate with the same person. This is the first problem because whomsoever you love, side by side
you hate him also.

Why do you hate a person you love? Love is a need and just like love there is another need and that is of

freedom. The moment you love a person, you start feeling dependent; your freedom is lost. And the person
who is killing your freedom is bound to be hated. And the person who is making you dependent will appear
not only as an enemy but as the arch-enemy because he is killing all your freedom, your liberty, your
individuality. But love is a need, so you fulfill love at the cost of freedom. You love a person and you hate
that person also.

Then the second problem arises: the moment you are in love with someone, you are not in your senses.

You are mad. Really, you are a lunatic. You are not alert, you are not conscious. You are moving as if in
sleep. And if the other person is also the same -- and a doctor or a psychoanalyst IS the same, there is no
difference, he has no higher consciousness than you -- then he is also moving in sleep. Two persons moving
in sleep are bound to collide; they will be in conflict, struggle.

We in India have given another word for falling in love with a master, just to show the difference. We

call it SHRADDHA -- we call it trust, a loving trust. If you fall in love with a master -- and you will fall --
then there is a difference. You are in sleep, but the master is not in sleep. You will try in every way to create
a conflict, violence, aggression but he can laugh at it -- at you. He can be kind and he can arrange things so
that there is no collision. He can arrange things so there is no violence and no hate. But with a
psychoanalyst, you are meeting a person of the same state of mind. The quality of the mind is similar; you
will both create problems for each other.

In love, lovers create problems for each other. They go on throwing their problems on the other. And if

both are throwing their problems on each other, then it cannot be a growth, it cannot come to a healthy
maturity. Impossible! Again it will be an experience in failure. And the more you fail, the more you become
experienced in failure. Then you know more how to fail. And with every love experience and relationship, if
misery is created, by and by you will come to feel that love is a sort of disease.

There have been persons.... Oscar Wilde has said somewhere that love is a fever, a feverish state. It is

not health because whenever you are in love you are in a fever. You cannot sleep properly when you are in
love, you cannot be at ease. You are uneasy, a turmoil goes on, a fever grips you.

The third problem is that whenever you are in love you try to possess the other, you try to become the

master of the other -- the possessor. And the same thing is being done by the other: he or she is trying to
possess you. And what does this possession mean? What is possession? Possession means to transform the
person into a thing so that you can manipulate him. Then the person has no freedom. And each lover is
making an effort to kill the other as a person.

Only with a master will this not happen. With the master the disciple will try in every way to possess but

you cannot possess a master. That is impossible, because you can possess a person only if he deeply
cooperates with you. He may be insisting that he wants to remain independent but there also is a deep need
to be possessed. A master cannot be possessed, so your effort toward possession will fail. And he will not
try to possess you. Rather, on the contrary, he is trying to make you more of a person -- more alive, more
free, more conscious, more alert. His whole effort is to make you more a person than a thing. But lovers are
trying to make each other a thing. A psychoanalyst is an ordinary person with some expertise but with no
change of consciousness.

There are some psychoanalysts like Wilhelm Reich and his followers who say that this transference, this

falling in love of the patient with the doctor, is good. But I have been reading the memoirs of Wilhelm
Reich's wife and she says that he was making love to each woman patient but he would not allow his wife
even to talk with another man.

His wife was away at some hill-station for two months. When she came back, he inquired about what

she had been doing there -- who she was meeting, whether she fell in love with someone.... And his wife
says that he was making love with a new woman every day, yet he was jealous of his wife and possessive.
How can this man be helpful? What type of help can come from this man? He himself is in trouble with his
own love problems. It is possible that he is just giving a philosophy. He is a maniac, a pervert, and he is
philosophizing the whole thing, he is rationalizing the whole thing.

I do not say that love cannot be helpful. Love can be helpful. But it can be helpful only when you are in

love with a person who is higher than you; otherwise it cannot be helpful. And we call that love shraddha --
a loving trust.

If you are in love with a master, with a buddha -- and of course you will be; if you are near a buddha you

will be -- in the beginning your love towards Buddha will have a certian sexuality about it; it is bound to be
so. That's why it happens around Buddha, around Mahavira... it is known about Mahavira that he had forty
thousand disciples -- monks and nuns. Of forty thousand monks and nuns, thirty thousand were women,
only ten thousand were men. The proportion was three women to one man. Of four followers, three were
women and one was a man.

These thirty thousand women must have had a deep love and in the beginning a sexual attraction. It is

bound to be so, it is natural. But by and by, the presence of Mahavira will change that sexual part. By and
by, living near him, the sexuality will drop and the love will become purer; it will become more spiritual.

In the beginning it will be possessive. Even I feel that it becomes possessive. Around me there are many

women and they start being possessive, unknowingly. And nothing is wrong in it; it is natural. But if I am
also of the same state of mind, then I cannot help them. Then, rather than me bringing them to a higher state
of mind, they will bring me down to their level. And there is a constant struggle for equality. Remember,
just as water seeks its own level, whenever you meet a person you both struggle to create a level. Either he
should come down or you should go up but sooner or later you must settle on the same level; otherwise it
will be difficult, you won't be able to remain related.

Just like water seeks a level, a relationship seeks a level. If you fall in love with me, then there will be a

struggle. Long or short, it depends on what type of a person you are, there will be a struggle. You will try to
bring me down so that the equality is established. Nature likes equality. But if you can bring me down, then
I cannot help you. So while you are trying to bring me down, I must try to bring you up to a higher state.
And remember, to go to a lower state is very easy; to bring someone to a higher state is very difficult. It is a
long struggle.

When the doctor and the patient are of similar consciousness, only their knowledge differs -- not their

being. One man has studied psychology, psychoanalysis, psychiatry: he is an expert. The other has not
studied it; that is the only difference. Their memories differ, their information differs. As far as their minds
are concerned they are different, but as far as their consciousness is concerned they are similar.

So I do not think this phenomenon called transference, projection of love, can be of any help; it cannot

be. It can be only if the psychoanalyst is also a master, is also a guru. Then it can be of help; otherwise it
cannot be of any help. The person with whom you fall in love must be of such integrity that you cannot
bring him down no matter what you do. And you will make every effort, you will make a desperate effort, to
bring him down. This is natural because you feel uneasy with a person who is higher than you. Either you
must go higher, which is difficult, or he must come down -- and it looks easier for you to bring him down.

If he can come down, or if he is already down and simply imposes that he is not down, then he cannot be

of much help. But if he remains higher than you, then your love can really become a growth.

Disciples and masters are in constant struggle, remember this, in constant struggle because the disciples

are trying to bring the master down and the master is trying to bring the disciples up. It is a very penetrating
struggle and the disciples will not leave anything undone. Not that they know: they do not know what they
are doing. But they are unconscious, so they can be forgiven. The master cannot be forgiven because he
must be aware, he must be alert, he must be conscious of what is happening around him.

A psychoanalyst is not a master; that is why I say that in the West, the relationship between

psychoanalysts and patients has become a sexual license -- nothing else. It is helping neither.

And the second part of the same question is: "Is not this concept the same as that of surrender in Eastern

tradition? Is it not possible that Freud discovered its value through some esoteric leak?"

No! Surrender is different from love. In love you remain yourself. Love is a relationship between two

persons who remain two. It is a relationship, it is a bridge. Surrender is not a relationship. You simply
disappear, you are no more. When you surrender to a master, you say, "I am not now. Now do whatsoever
you like; I am not." It is not a relationship. Surrender is not a relationship, because one disappears through it
and a relationship needs two. Only the master remains.

Really, when you surrender the master is working in you -- you are not there. Then it becomes very easy

to work because the struggle that the disciple puts up, the resistance that he usually gives, is no more there.
He is simply in a let-go. When the master says come to the left, he comes to the left. Or if he says come to
the right, he comes to the right. Whatsoever the master says he simply follows. He doesn't allow his ego to
assert itself; it is not a relationship.

Love is a relationship. Both the lovers are trying to remain themselves; hence, the struggle. Both are

trying to be related and yet to remain independent. This is contradictory because the very relationship will
change you and you will have to compromise and adjust with the other. And you will not be the same again.

A person who is unmarried will not be the same person when he is married. He cannot be! It is

impossible to remain the same person because now a new compromise has entered. Now a new person has
entered and a relationship is created. This relationship will change both. Remember, in love both change; in
surrender, only the surrendered changes -- not the master. He is not related. He remains aloof, he remains
far away, he remains distant. You surrender and you change. In love it is always a condition. You give
something to take something. This is a give and take. In surrender, you simply give; there is no condition to
it.

Surrender is a very different phenomenon. Really, the West is absolutely unacquainted with it. The

master-disciple relationship is absolutely an Eastern happening. In the West there are teachers and the
taught, not masters and disciples. That is why Krishnamurti's teachings have been so influential in the West,
because he says there is no master and no disciple.

The East has come to evolve a new type of relationship -- if you can call it a relationship -- in which one

exists and the other dissolves, in which the surrendered changes but the master makes no compromise. It is
one way.

Love is two way. Both do something; both give and take. It is an exchange. Surrender is one way. The

disciple simply offers himself. The master remains untouched. Only then can he work. If he is changed by
you, he cannot change you. So many times masters look very hard: they look very unkind, they look very
cruel because you go on weeping and crying and they remain untouched. Or even if they show that they are
touched, you can see that they are pretending, that they are play-acting.

Surrender is one way, totally one way. That is why it is so difficult. If you feel that the other is also

bending, it becomes more easy. Then it is a contract, then it is a marriage. Marriage is a contract. Surrender
is not a marriage; there is no contract. You simply dissolve yourself on your own and the master will not
even thank you. You are dissolving yourself totally, surrendering, and he will not even say a single
thank-you to you. He may not even look at you.

It is said that Bayazid, one Sufi mystic, came to his master and the master said, "Are you ready to

surrender? Otherwise, go and move in the world to have some experience of the world, some experience of
the failures of the ego, so that you do not resist."
But Bayazid said, "I am ready."

The master said to Bayazid, "Now remain silent. Unless I say something to you, you need not say

anything."

It is said that for twelve years Bayazid remained silent. He would come every day, sit by the side of the

master, and wait. And it is said that just by waiting he achieved.

One day, after twelve years, the master for the first time looked at him, and that was the moment,

Bayazid remembers, when he was absolutely in waiting. Not a single thought was there. It was then that the
master looked at him. This was the recognition that, "Now you are accepted."

Then another three years passed, and one day the master took Bayazid's hand in his own. Bayazid

remembers that that was the day when even the waiting had disappeared. Even that was a subtle thought:
"Waiting, waiting, waiting -- someday something is going to happen." Even that had disappeared when the
master took his hand in his own.

Then three more years passed and one day the master called him near, took him near his heart, embraced

him and said, "Now you can go." These were the first words uttered: "Now you can go."
This is surrender.

And Bayazid remembers: "That was the moment when I was so totally one with existence, with the

present moment, that the master had disappeared. I was sitting by his side; he was no more there -- no one
was there. Simply the existence was there. That was the moment the master called me near, embraced me,
and said, 'Now you can go.'" This is surrender -- one way.

But when disciples come to a master, in the beginning they fall in love, not in surrender. And they call

that love surrender. That creates problems because love is NOT surrender. Surrender is a higher state --
totally, qualitatively different, undemanding, nonpossessive, not asking for anything, unconditional. But this
is by nature so, that surrender is not known to you while love is a natural phenomenon. First love stirs you.
And if the other person is not in a love need, then only can he bring your love toward surrender.

It will depend on how much you resist. You can resist your whole life: then it will not happen. And no

master can do anything unless YOU are cooperating, unless you allow, because no master can be
aggressive. If you are open, he can enter; if you are nonresistant, he can change and transform you.

Surrender is the easiest way to be transformed. All other ways are difficult and take a long time. If you

can put yourself aside, then the master can immediately enter in you and can change your total being. But
no master can be aggressive. Against your will nothing can be done. Surrender means that you are totally
cooperative. Whatsoever is done, you will cooperate. In the West it has never existed.... Even Jesus'
followers, the twelve apostles, were not surrendered really.

On the last night, when Jesus was going to be caught by the enemies, and the rumor was that he was

going to be crucified, killed, murdered, Peter said, "I will follow you wherever you go."

Jesus laughed and said, "Before the sun rises in the morning you will have denied me three times."
And it happened so. Jesus was caught. It was dark and people had caught him, the enemies, and they

started taking him away somewhere. Peter followed. Someone saw his face. They had lighted torches so
someone saw his face. Peter looked like a stranger because those in the group were known to each other, so
someone said, "Who are you? Are you a follower of Jesus?"
He said, "No, I do not know him at all."

And Jesus looked back and said, "You have denied me already."
On the last night, when he was departing, the disciples asked him, "We know that soon we will enter the

kingdom of God. You will sit at God's right hand because you are his only begotten son, but it will be good
if you can tell us where we twelve will be sitting. What will be our positions?"

This is not surrender. This is not surrender at all. They are ambitious, they have egos, and they are

thinking in terms of greed and contract. Jesus could not get surrendered disciples. Because of that,
Christianity went against him. It carries the name of Christ, but it does not belong to Christ at all. It is
absolutely against him because only surrendered disciples can carry the real message, the authentic
message. Those who are not surrendered, they will distort it. So it can be said now the pope is the MOST
anti-Christ person in the world. The concept of surrender is Eastern.

Someone said to Buddha one day, "You have ten thousand monks around you. How many of them have

become buddhas -- enlightened?" Buddha said, "So many." So the person asked, "If so many have become
enlightened among these ten thousand monks, then why do they not shine like you? Why are they not
known like you? Why are they not worshipped and adored like you? Why have they not become godmen?"

So Buddha said, "They are just waiting for my permission -- just waiting. If I tell them to, they will

disclose themselves. They are surrendered disciples. If I say, they will disclose themselves -- they are just
waiting for me. If I do not say anything, they will dissolve into the cosmos without uttering a single word."

This is something absolutely different which has not existed anywhere else.
The East has come to create surrender, the phenomenon of surrender, out of the elements of love. But it

is a new synthesis, it is a new phenomenon. It is not natural. Love is natural: surrender is supernatural. It is
something new which does not come out of evolution itself. It has been created by superconscious beings. It
is a new phenomenon, it is a creation.

The last question:

BELOVED OSHO,
I AM DEEPLY UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT UNKNOWN FORCES CONTROL MY EVERY THOUGHT
AND ACTION. I FEEL LIKE A PUPPET BEING MANIPULATED BY UNSEEN STRINGS. IT IS AS IF I AM
BEING TESTED FROM MOMENT TO MOMENT. STILL, I AM UNAWARE OF THIS AND DO NOT KNOW
WHETHER I AM MAKING THINGS UP. EVEN THIS QUESTION SEEMS ARRANGED BY ANOTHER
FORCE BEYOND MY DOING AND CONTROL. PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT THIS MEANS.

This is so clear, there is no need for any explanation. This is not a question -- just a statement of fact.

And this is good! If you really feel you are a puppet, you do not need to do anything else. If you really feel
you are in the hands of some greater force, you are no more. And this is what is needed -- to be no more.

But I think when you say you feel like a puppet there is a little condemnation. You do not feel good

about feeling like a puppet! But still you are. Who is feeling like a puppet? If you are REALLY feeling like
a puppet, then who is it that is feeling like a puppet? Who can feel, who is there to feel? You will be a
puppet and there ends everything.

So do one thing: drop this idea that you are a puppet. Simply be aware of the cosmic forces around you.

You are nothing -- not even a puppet. You are just a crossing point of so many forces, just a crossroads of so
many forces passing. And because so many forces pass, a point arises. Just at the crossing, a point arises. If
you draw many lines crossing each other, a point will arise. That point becomes your ego and you feel that
you are.

You are not. Only the cosmos is. You are not even like a puppet: that too is carrying the ego in a new

form. And because the ego is being carried, it feels a little condemnation about the whole situation.

Be ecstatic that you are not because with the disappearance of YOU all misery disappears. With the

disappearance of the ego there is no hell. You are freed -- freed from yourself. Then there are only cosmic
forces working eternally. You do not exist anywhere, not even like a puppet. If this can go deep in you, you
have arrived. You have come to the real thing all religions want you to come to. You have touched the core
-- the very ground.

But it is difficult. You may be imagining it; you may be making it up really. It is very difficult. You can

think it but thinking will not help unless you feel it, unless it becomes a realization. It can happen only
through deep meditation; otherwise it cannot happen. Only in meditation can you come to a point where you
feel that "Everything is happening and I am not the doer." And not even this, that "I am not the doer": you
are simply not there; things are happening in a space. You have become a space and things are happening
there -- but you are not there.

This can happen only when all your thoughts cease and your being becomes unclouded -- unclouded by

thoughts. You exist only in that pure existence; you can feel this. But if you feel that this is happening this is
a good sign. Then move ahead and drop that puppet also; do not carry it. When you are no more, why carry
a puppet? Drop that puppet also. Be free totally from the ego.

This is why I am here -- to make you completely free of the ego. That is why I say to jump, to dance, to

sing, to be ecstatic, like a madman. If you can do this then the ego cannot exist because the ego always
exists as a controller. If you do not control anything, it disappears. It is a function of control.

When you start dancing, the ego says, "What are you doing? You will look foolish. Such an intelligent

man like you dancing like a primitive?" The ego will say, "Do not do it! Control yourself!" If you control,
the ego remains. Be uncontrolled; do not listen to this controlling force. Just allow yourself for the first time
to be simply alive without any control and immediately you will feel that the ego is not there. Existence is
there, forces are there, but the ego is not there.

To me, to exist uncontrolled is the only discipline. If you can exist uncontrolled, you have attained to the

highest discipline possible. If you do not control yourself and there is order, then this order doesn't belong to
you. This order comes from the higher sources. If YOU discipline yourself, then you are the source of your
whole life. Then you are cut off from the cosmic source. Drop yourself completely.

I will tell you one anecdote, and then we will try this dropping.

One day, a king came to Buddha with a very precious diamond in one hand and a lotus flower in the

other. He thought that Buddha might not like the diamond because he had renounced all riches, so he
brought the lotus flower in order not to take a chance. He would have liked to present the diamond. It was
rare; it belonged only to him. That was the point really; Buddha was not the point. He was going to present
Buddha with a diamond that no one else could present. And then it would be known all over the world that
this king had presented Buddha with such a precious thing.

That was the point; Buddha was just an excuse. But Buddha might not like the diamond, he might not

accept, so he brought a lotus flower. That too was rare because this was not the season for it. It was
unseasonal.

He came before Buddha with his diamond in his right hand. Buddha, just seeing him, said, "Drop it."
The man understood that he didn't like it, so he dropped the diamond on the ground. Then he brought the

lotus flower in his left hand and Buddha said, "Drop that also." So he dropped it.

Then he brought his empty folded hands. Buddha, for a third time, said, "Drop that also."
Now he had nothing to drop, so he looked puzzled, confused. Buddha said, "Do not think -- drop that

also."

Then suddenly he understood that Buddha was not saying to drop the diamond or the flower but the ego

which brought the diamond and the flower.

He fell down at Buddha's feet, and Buddha said to the assembly, "This man is a man of understanding."
When he arose, when he stood back, he was a different man -- altogether different. The old had simply

disappeared. The man who had fallen at Buddha's feet was no more; a new man had come up. What had
changed? The ego....

Now get ready, and drop it...!

The Supreme Doctrine

Chapter #16

Chapter title: The Great Dance of Suchness

16 July 1973 am in Mt Abu Meditation Camp

Archive code: 7307160

ShortTitle: DOCTRN16

Audio:

Yes

Video:

No

Length: 67 mins

INVOCATION

BRAHMAN IS WELL KNOWN BY THE NAME TATVANAM -- THAT -- SO IT IS TO BE MEDITATED UPON
AS TATVANAM -- THAT. ALL BEINGS LOVE HIM WHO KNOW BRAHMAN AS SUCH.
"SIR, TEACH ME THE UPANISHAD."
"THE UPANISHAD HAS BEEN IMPARTED TO YOU. WE HAVE, VERILY, IMPARTED TO YOU THE
UPANISHAD RELATING TO BRAHMAN."
OF THE UPANISHAD, TAPAS -- AUSTERITIES; DAMAN -- SELF-RESTRAINT; AND KARMA -- DEDICATED
WORK; FORM THE SUPPORT. THE VEDAS ARE ITS LIMBS, AND TRUTH ITS ABODE.
ONE WHO REALIZES IT -- KNOWLEDGE OF BRAHMAN -- THUS DESTROYS SIN AND IS WELL

ESTABLISHED IN BRAHMAN, THE INFINITE, THE BLISSFUL AND THE HIGHEST.

The word god is not God, because the ultimate cannot have a name. It is nameless -- because names are

given by others. A child is born. The child is born nameless, then a name is to be given. That name doesn't
come from the inner source of the child's consciousness. It comes from without. It is a label -- useful,
utilitarian, but artificial. The child will become a victim. He will identify himself with this name which is
given, which really doesn't belong to him.

But who will give a name to the Brahman? There are no parents, no society, no 'other'. And what is the

use when the Brahman alone is? A name is needed because you are not alone. You need to be categorized,
named, defined, so that others can call you, remember you. If you are alone on the earth, you will not need a
name. And Brahman is alone, so who will give him a name? There is no other and there is no utility in it
either.

So that is the first thing to be understood and very basic to the Upanishad -- because all the religions

have given certain names. Hindus have given thousands of names. They have a book, Vishnu Sahastranam
-- God's one thousand names. The whole book consists only of names. Christians, Mohammedans, Hindus,
all have given certain names to God to make prayer possible. The name remains false but how are you going
to call the divine? How are you going to invoke him? How are you going to relate yourself to him? You
need a name for the divine but the Upanishads are not ready to give a name.

The Upanishads are the purest teaching possible; they do not make any compromise. They do not make

any compromise for you. They are rigorous, very hard and they try to remain totally pure. So what do the
Upanishads call Brahman? They simply call him TAT -- that. They do not give him a name. 'That' is not a
name; 'that' is an indication. And there is a great difference. When you do not have a name, then you
indicate and say "That." It is a finger pointing toward the unknown. 'That' is a finger pointing toward the
unknown, so the Upanishads call him Tat.

You may have heard one of the most famous sentences of the Upanishads: TAT-VAM-ASI -- That art

thou. You are also the Brahman, but the Upanishads go on calling him 'that'. Even to say calling him is not
good because the moment we use he, him, the ultimate becomes a person. The Upanishads do not say that
he is a person; he is just a force, energy, life, but not a person. So they insist on calling him Tat -- that. That
is the only name given by the Upanishads to the ultimate.

Many things are implied, of course. One: if there is no name, or if Tat, that, is the only name, prayer

becomes impossible. You can meditate on that but you cannot pray. The Upanishads really do not believe in
prayer; they believe in meditation. Prayer is something addressed to a person. Meditation is simply sinking,
drowning, within yourself. The person is somewhere outside you but that, the Brahman, the ultimate force,
is within you. You need not relate to it as the other; you can simply drown yourself inwardly. You can
simply sink within yourself and you will find that -- because "That art thou."

To take Brahman as the other is false for the Upanishads. Not that the other is not Brahman: everything

is Brahman; the other also, the outer also, is Brahman. But the Upanishads say that if you cannot feel him
within, it is impossible for you to feel him without -- because the nearest source is within; the without is far
away. And if the nearest has not been known, how can you know the faraway, the distant? If you cannot feel
him in yourself, how can you feel him in others? It is impossible.

The first step must be taken within. From there the Brahman, that, is nearest. You are that. To say

nearest is false; there is not even that much distance -- because even when someone is near there is distance.
Nearness shows a certain distance; nearness is a sort of distance. He is not even near you -- because you
ARE that. So why go wandering without? He is in the home. You are looking for the guest and he is the
host. You are waiting for the guest to come and he is already the host. He is you.

So the first implication is: for the Upanishads there is no prayer; there is meditation. Prayer is a

relationship between two, just like love. Meditation is not a relationship between two. It is just like
surrender. Meditation is going withinwards, surrendering yourself unto yourself -- not clinging to the
periphery but sinking deep to the center. And when you are at your center you are in that -- Tat, Brahman.

The second implication: when the Upanishads call him that, it means he is not the creator; rather, he is

the creation -- because the moment we say, "God is the creator," we have made him a person. And not only
have we made him a person: we have divided existence into two -- the creator and the created. The duality
has entered. The Upanishads say that he is the creation. Or, to be more accurate, he is the creativity -- the
very force of creation.

I always like to illustrate this point by the phenomenon of dance. A painter paints but the moment he has

painted his picture, the painter is separate from the picture. Now the painter can die and the picture will
remain. Or you can destroy the picture but by doing that the painter will not be destroyed -- they are
separate. Now the picture can exist for centuries without the painter. The painter is not needed. Once
painted, it is finished; the relationship is broken.

Look at the dancer! He dances but the dance is not separate; it cannot be separated. If the dancer is dead,

then the dance is dead. Dance is not separate from the dancer; the dance cannot exist without the dancer.
And the dancer cannot exist without the dance either because the moment there is no dance, the person may
be there but he is not a dancer.

God's relation to the world, for the Upanishads, is that of dance and the dancer. Hence, we have pictured

Shiva as Nataraj, the dancer. A very deep meaning is there -- that this world is not something secondary that
God has created, then forgotten about and become separate from. The world is not of a secondary order. It is
as much of the first order as the divine himself because this world is just a dance, a LEELA, a play. It
cannot be separated.

Calling Brahman That says all that is is Brahman, all that is, is he -- the manifested and the

unmanifested, the creation and the creator. He is BOTH.

The word that -- Tat -- also has a very subtle meaning. Buddha has used that meaning very much and

Buddhists have a separate school of teaching just based on this word. Buddha has called that suchness, he
has called it TATHATA; hence Buddha's name, Tathagata -- the man who has achieved suchness, who has
achieved That.

This word suchness is very beautiful. What does it mean? If you are born, Buddha will say, "Such is the

case that you are born." No other comment. If you die he will say, "Such is the case -- you die!" No other
comment, no reaction to it; things are such. Then everything becomes acceptable. If you say, "Things are
such that now I have become old, ill; things are such that I am defeated; things are such that I am victorious;
things are such..." then you don't claim anything, and you don't feel frustrated because you don't expect
anything. Such is the nature of things. Then one who is born will die, one who is healthy will become ill,
one who is young will become old, one who is beautiful will become ugly. Such is the nature of things.

Unnecessarily you get worried about it; this suchness is not going to change because of your worry.

Unnecessarily you get involved in it; your involvement is not going to change anything. Things will go on
moving in their own way. The suchness, the river of suchness, will go on moving in spite of you.
Whatsoever you do makes no difference; whatsoever you think makes no difference. You cannot make any
difference in the nature of things.

Once this feeling settles within your heart, then life has no frustration for you. Then life cannot frustrate

you, then life cannot disappoint you. And with this feeling of suchness a subtle joy arises in your being.
Then you can enjoy everything -- YOU are no more, really. With the feeling that "Such is the nature, such is
existence, such is the course of things," your ego disappears.

How can your ego exist? It exists only when you think that you can make certain changes in the nature

of things. It exists only when you think that you are a creator -- you can change the course, you can
manipulate nature. This very moment, when you think that you can manipulate nature, ego enters, you
become egoistic. You start functioning and thinking as if you are separate.

Someone asked Rinzai, "What's your SADHANA -- what's your meditation?"
So he said, "No meditation. When I feel hungry, I feel hungry and I go begging. When I feel sleepy, I

fall asleep. When sleep is gone and I feel awake, I am awake. I have no other sadhana -- no other
meditation, no other practice. I move with things as they are. When it is hot, I move into the shadow of a
tree; the very nature moves towards shadow. When it becomes cold under the shadow of a tree, I move
under the sun -- but I am not doing anything. Such is the nature of things."

Look at the beauty: he says, "Such is the nature of things. When feeling hungry, I go begging -- not that

I go begging... such is the nature of things. The hunger goes begging. Not that I move from the hot sun
towards the shadow of a tree -- such is the nature of things. The body moves and I allow it all to happen,
and I am happy because I allow everything to happen. Nothing can make me miserable."

Misery enters into you because you start interfering, you become resistant. You don't allow the suchness

to move: you start creating blocks for it. You want to change the course of things, then misery enters.

Someone gives you respect, honors you -- you feel elated. You think something very great is within you

and now it is being appreciated. It was always there -- that was your feeling -- but now people have become

recognizant, now people have become more understanding so they can recognize the greatness of your
being. But then dishonor follows... and such is the nature of things, that dishonor follows honor, it is the
shadow of it. It is just the other part, the other aspect of the same coin. And when it follows you feel
dejected, you feel depressed, you feel like committing suicide. The whole world has gone wrong around
you, the whole world has become inimical to you.

The person who understands the nature of things will enjoy both. He will say, "Such is the nature of

things, that people honor me. And such is the nature of things, that dishonor follows honor, defeat follows
victory, happiness is followed by unhappiness, health is followed by disease -- such is the nature of things!
Youth is followed by old age and birth is followed by death -- such is the nature of things!"

So whatsoever is the case, if you can feel it is so and nothing else is possible, then that which is possible

happens. It is always happening -- that which is possible. And that which is impossible is never happening.
And if you start asking for the impossible, you are trying to move against the nature of things. The
philosophy of suchness or that, thatness, is simply this statement: "Do not try for the impossible; move with
the possible and you will never be unhappy." Bliss happens to those who can move with a feeling of
suchness.

Buddha became old and his followers thought, "Buddha should not become old. A buddha becoming

old?" The followers could not conceive of this because followers have their own fantasies. They think
Buddha is not part of the nature of things. They think he must not die, that he must always remain young. So
Ananda said to Buddha, "It is very depressing that now old age is settling upon you. We never imagined that
you, one who has become awakened, one who has realized the ultimate, should become old."

Buddha said, "Such is the nature of things. For everyone, whether a buddha or non-buddha, enlightened

or ignorant, the nature of things is the same -- equal. I will become old and I will die, because whosoever is
born will die. Such is the nature of things." Ananda is unhappy; Buddha is not. Ananda is unhappy because
he is expecting something impossible, against the nature of things.

When Shri Aurobindo died, the whole ashram of Shri Aurobindo was not ready to accept the fact that

Aurobindo could die. They couldn't believe it. The followers all over the world were surprised that Shri
Aurobindo could die. For a few months this was the rumor -- that he will resurrect again. And for a few days
they tried to preserve the body. This was the rumor around the circle of his followers -- that he is in deep
samadhi, in deep meditation, and he has not died. But after three days, the body started deteriorating and a
bad smell started coming out of it. He was really dead. Such is the nature of things.

Nature is a great equalizer; it makes no distinctions. And it is good that it doesn't make any distinctions.

It is not partial. If you are awakened, the only change will be this -- that you will accept this suchness. If
you are ignorant, the only difference will be this -- that you will go on resisting, fighting with the suchness.
This is the only difference -- the only, I say. And this difference is great, the greatest, because the moment
you realize that things move in their own way, that nature has its own law, its own order, you are freed from
it. Not that it will change its laws for you, but that YOU will have changed, your attitude will have changed.
You will say, "Such is the nature of things."

Brahman is the ultimate nature of things, the very suchness. With this comes total acceptance. In total

acceptance, suffering disappears. Suffering is your resistance, suffering is your nonacceptance. You create
your own suffering. Bliss is always available but because of your attitudes you are not available to it. Now
we will enter the sutra.

BRAHMAN IS WELL KNOWN BY THE NAME TATVANAM -- THAT -- SO IT IS TO BE MEDITATED UPON
AS TATVANAM -- THAT. ALL BEINGS LOVE HIM WHO KNOW BRAHMAN AS SUCH.

Brahman is well known by the name that -- Tat -- so it is to be meditated upon as Tat -- as that. Do not

meditate upon him as a person. Then your imagination will have entered. There is no person there. Do not
meditate upon him as SAGUN -- with attributes. That is not the teaching of the Upanishads. Do not
conceive of him in some form. Just remember him as that.

But this is very difficult. How do you remember him as that? You can remember him as Krishna, as

Rama, as Christ, as Buddha, but how can you remember him as that? The very concept of 'that' shatters your
mind. It will stop. If you remember him as that, as the suchness of things, as this great cosmos -- and all is
implied in it -- your mind will stop through shock. You cannot think about that -- or can you? You can think
about Krishna because you can picture, you can imagine, that he is playing on his flute or he is dancing and
his girlfriends, gopis, are dancing around him -- or can you picture him making love to Radha?

You can picture him but how to picture 'that'? There is no flute, there are no girlfriends, there is no

dance. There is nothing to be pictured. How can you imagine that? Imagination stops. If you really try to
conceive of that, through that very effort mind will stop and you will enter meditation. This that is just like a
Zen koan. That which cannot be conceived -- if you try to conceive of it your mind will stop and stopping of
the mind is meditation.

The very effort to meditate on that is absurd. You cannot meditate upon that: there is nothing to meditate

upon; there is no object. That is not an object. But if you try hard, in the very effort... because you cannot
meditate upon it.... Not that you will succeed in meditating upon that -- in the very effort, in the very failure
that you cannot think about it, thinking will stop.... Because thinking has no goal it cannot move with that
and when thinking stops you are in meditation.

It is not that Tat, the Brahman, will appear before you; it is not that you will come to know and realize

the truth in front of you -- no! The moment your thinking has stopped, you have become that, you have
fallen into it. The wave has disappeared into the ocean. And this disappearing always happens within
because you fall from there. The wave disappears in the ocean. YOU are that. Meditating upon that, you
will become that.

The Upanishads go on saying that one who knows the Brahman becomes the Brahman; one who

meditates upon him becomes him: he becomes that.

BRAHMAN IS WELL KNOWN BY THE NAME THAT, SO IT IS TO BE MEDITATED UPON AS THAT. ALL
BEINGS LOVE HIM WHO KNOW BRAHMAN AS SUCH.

And the person who comes to know Brahman as that, as the suchness of existence, all beings naturally

falls in love with him.

Why does this happen? You suddenly feel love arising within your heart and flowing toward the person

who has come to attain suchness. Why does it happen? It is not that it is necessarily so; you can even hate
such a person because hate is a form of love. But you cannot be indifferent to such a person, that is the
point. If such a person is there, either you can love him or hate him but you cannot be indifferent. Hate is
possible because hate is the opposite form, the reverse, of love. It is just love doing SHIRSHASAN --
standing on its head. But you cannot be indifferent.

Why does love happen? Why does hate happen? And why is indifference not possible? Because the very

being of such a person touches your heart deeply. It goes on playing on your heart; your heart becomes a
musical instrument. Just the presence of such a person stirs something within you. The very presence of
such a person makes your own 'that' alive. It becomes a magnetic force and your own sleeping Brahman
feels its sleep disturbed. Your own sleeping Brahman opens his eyes and looks at this awakened Brahman
and a love or hate happens.

If you are receptive, surrendering, trusting, then love will happen. If you are doubtful, skeptical,

nonsurrendering, egoistic, then hate will happen. But indifference is impossible. You cannot conceive of
Buddha moving in a town and someone being indifferent. Either love or hate is bound to happen. But both
are relationships; you will start being related.

Love says, "I am ready to move with you." Hate says, "Do not pull me. I am not ready to surrender; I

will resist." Love says, "I am ready to follow you and fall with you." Hate says, "I cannot surrender my ego.
And just because I cannot surrender my ego I will hate you, because the moment I love the surrender will
happen." And sometimes it happens that when you are in love with a person you may not be so deeply
related as when you hate him.

There is one anecdote I have heard: one rishi got angry with someone. He was so angry that he cursed

the man. The curse was very terrible and this man would have to be born again and again and suffer. The
man fell down at the feet of that rishi and asked forgiveness. But a curse cannot be reversed. The rishi said,
"Now nothing can be done to reverse the curse. You will have to pass through it. Only one thing can be
done. If you remember God's name, then the curse will not have such a terrific effect upon you. You will
remain detached; you will not suffer so much. But you will have to pass through suffering."

So the man asked, "Tell me the secret of remembering the name so that I may not forget it."
Then the rishi said, "Then hate God. Do not love -- because love can forget, but hate cannot. Hate God,

and go on cursing and cursing him, swearing against him. Just by cursing him you will remember him."

Love may forget; hate cannot forget. Love can forget because love, by and by, becomes one with the

object of love. Hate is a constant vigilance; you have to protect yourself. The pull is there -- a buddha is

pulling you -- you have to struggle. If you lose for a single moment, if you are forgetful for a single
moment, you will be in the current. So you have to be constantly alert. Hate is just a love relationship in the
reverse order.

A person who happens to be enlightened will attract you -- either your love or your hate. But one thing

is certain: you cannot be indifferent to him, because he has gone so deep that his depth will resonate within
you, will resound, reflect. His depth will call your depth. He will become an invocation. It is not that he will
do something: just his being, just his very being, will do something -- no effort on his part.

Just looking at a flower, you say, "Beautiful!" Something has happened within you. It is not that the

flower has done anything; the flower is completely unaware that you are passing. But you say, "Beautiful!"
When your heart says that something is beautiful, something has happened within your heart; the flower has
touched you deep down. You see the full moon in the night and suddenly you become silent. The depth, the
beauty, the grace, has touched you.

Similar is the case here: when a person who has achieved Brahman, who is enlightened, touches you, it

is deeper than any flower can touch. It is deeper than any full moon can touch, it is deeper than anything in
the world can touch you because the feeling of Brahman is the deepest, the ultimate core, the very ground.
Just by being near such a person you are changed.

Hence so much insistence in India just to be near the master -- just to be NEAR the master! The very

nearness goes on changing you because the depth calls your depth, the inner silence calls your inner silence,
the bliss invokes your bliss. The very presence of a master is seductive. He goes on changing you,
transforming you.
"SIR, TEACH ME THE UPANISHAD."

Now speaks the disciple. Up to now the master was speaking, and now the disciple asks the first and the

last question -- the only question. This is beautiful... because he was simply waiting. You must not have
even been aware that there was a disciple. Only the master was speaking, as if the disciple was not. He must
have been just ears and eyes; he has not interrupted at all. Now, in the last moment, he asks for something:
"SIR, TEACH ME THE UPANISHAD."

The word upanishad means the esoteric teaching, the hidden teaching, the secret teaching. Upanishad

means the secret path, the secret key -- the esoteric, the hidden, the unknown. Upanishad means the
mystery. Asks the disciple: "SIR, TEACH ME THE UPANISHAD."
And the master says,
"THE UPANISHAD HAS BEEN IMPARTED TO YOU. WE HAVE VERILY IMPARTED TO YOU THE
UPANISHAD RELATING TO BRAHMAN."

Here there is a very subtle and delicate point to be understood. The master has been teaching, talking,

and the disciple must have been intensely, intellectually alert, aware, to understand whatsoever was said.
And all that can be said has been said. All the knowledge relating to Brahman has been imparted. All that
can be verbalized, all that can be spoken has been spoken.

And the student asks, the disciple asks, "Now teach me the Upanishad, the secret of secrets. What is the

meaning of it?"

And the master says, "The Upanishad has already been imparted to you." The master is talking -- this is

on one level -- and while the disciple is engaged in listening, on another level the secret is being imparted.

That is why the disciple is not aware: he is intellectually engaged. His attention is on the words but deep

down something else is being transferred. And that transfer is the secret: that is the real Upanishad. But that
cannot be said. It is a transfer without words, a communication without language.

Bodhidharma, one of the greatest masters India has ever produced, went to China. It is said about him

that he came to China with a scripture that didn't exist -- with a scripture that didn't exist! He transferred the
scripture without transferring anything at all. He must have been a past master in communicating things,
silently, without words.

He used to sit looking at the wall; he would never look at his audience. Just his back would be toward

you. He would never look at you; he would just look at the wall. And many people would ask Bodhidharma,
"What type of way is this? What type of manners? What type of man are you? We have never seen anyone
looking at the wall and we have come to listen to you."

Bodhidharma used to say, "When the right man comes I will turn toward him. And the right man is one

who can understand me in silence. I am not interested in you at all."

And then one day a right man came and that right man said to Bodhidharma, "Turn toward me;

otherwise I will cut off my head."

So Bodhidharma turned immediately and said, "So you have come? Now sit in silence and I will

impart."

Not a single word was uttered in imparting and the other was made a master. And Bodhidharma

disappeared. He had said, "I was waiting for this man for nine years." And the other became a master but
not a single word was used.

There are layers in your being. The uppermost layer, the most superficial, understands language, and the

deepest understands silence. And masters have to create devices. These teachings, verbal teachings, are just
devices. I have just been talking to you....

One young man came to me just the other day and he said, "You are very contradictory. You go on

saying nothing can be said and you go on talking every day continuously for three hours in the morning and
in the evening. You are very contradictory. You say nothing can be said about that and yet you go on
saying."

He is right, I am contradictory. Nothing can be said about that, and still I go on saying something. This

something is just to catch your attention on one level so that on another level something can penetrate in
silence.

The master says, "The Upanishad has already been imparted to you, and you are saying, 'Teach me, sir,

the Upanishad.' And what have I been doing all the time?" But the disciple was engaged intellectually. He is
not yet aware what has happened to him. The news has not yet reached to his intellect. It will take time.

So it happens. While you are here you may not have understood me but that doesn't make any

difference. If there has been a contact in silence, it will take time for you to realize that something has
happened within. The news will take time because intellect is very far away from the deepest center of you.
If something happens there, you will not become aware. Rather, I will become aware first. So I go on
looking at you while you are meditating, just to feel what is happening -- because you are not yet able to
feel what is happening. It will take time. The message will come one day; it will travel; it will pass through
all the centers and layers. And then it will come to your mind and then you will recognize -- but it may take
years.

Someone very near to me was saying just the other day, "You have not done anything for me and I have

been with you for two years." The news has not yet reached. It will take time.
The master says:
"THE UPANISHAD HAS BEEN IMPARTED TO YOU. WE HAVE VERILY IMPARTED TO YOU THE
UPANISHAD RELATING TO BRAHMAN."
OF THE UPANISHAD, TAPAS -- AUSTERITIES; DAMAN -- SELF-RESTRAINT; AND KARMA --
DEDICATED WORK; FORM THE SUPPORT. THE VEDAS ARE ITS LIMBS AND TRUTH ITS
ABODE.

In short, the master defines what the Upanishad calls tapas. Tapas means effort -- intense effort. When

you bring your total energy to any effort it becomes tapas -- any effort! If your total energy is brought to it,
it becomes tapas.

While doing meditation, if you withhold yourself it is not tapas. You are just making an effort which is

so-so, on the surface. You are not deep in it, not moving in it totally. When you move in it totally, it creates
heat; hence, the name tapas. Tapas means heat. When you move totally in any effort, it creates heat within
you. Exactly that: it creates heat and that heat changes many things chemically. You become a different
being. You become a different person through tapas because that heat changes you chemically. It makes a
different type of personality for you.

Gurdjieff used methods of tapas very much in this age. He would give some method to you and he

would say, "Bring your total effort to it. Not a single fragment should be left behind to watch it. Bring
yourself totally in it, become the effort." And you may be surprised that any effort....

Gurdjieff would say to someone, "Go into the garden and dig a hole and bring total effort into the

digging. Forget the digger completely; become the digging." And the man would go and he would dig and
he would dig. The whole day he would have been digging. Then Gurdjieff would come and throw all the
mud back and he would say, "This was useless. Start again tomorrow morning."

And the man would start again the next morning and this would go on for days and days. And he would

come every evening and he would throw the mud back, and he would say, "Start again."

When the digger becomes the digging, when there is no one left behind, when the whole being has

moved into effort, it becomes tapas; it becomes a subtle heat.

The master says tapas and DAMAN. Daman is self-restraint, not suppression. This word daman has

been very wrongly used. It is not suppression; it is self-restraint. And there is a deep difference.

While doing meditation, while standing in silence, you may feel a sneeze coming. You can suppress it,

you can start fighting with it, then it is suppression. But if you simply remain indifferent, if you do not do
anything about it, if you do not suppress and you do not express, if you do not do anything about it and you
simply remain indifferent, this is self-restraint. You remain in yourself. You don't move towards the sneeze
to do anything.

If you move to express it, you have come out of yourself. If you move to suppress it, again you have

come out of yourself. You simply remain in yourself as if the sneeze is happening to someone else -- you
are not concerned. You don't suppress it, you don't fight with it. You simply remain indifferent, a witness.
That is self-restraint.

Suppression is easy because you are allowed to do something. Self-restraint is very difficult because you

are not allowed to do anything. You are to remain passive, a non-doer, non-active, simply watching.

... TAPAS, DAMAN AND KARMA -- DEDICATED WORK -- FORM THE SUPPORT. These three

things form the support of the secret teaching, of the Upanishad. Dedicated work -- all karma, all action, is
not KARMA. When a karma is dedicated; when a karma is egoless; when a karma becomes a sort of prayer,
a meditation; when a karma is only outwardly a karma and inwardly something else is reaching toward the
divine; then it is karma -- then it is dedicated work.

For example, you are serving an old man or an ill man. If you can make it a meditation, if you can make

it a prayer; if you can see the divine, 'that', in that old, ill man; if you serve not to achieve anything, you
serve to be in deep meditation -- in this moment your service becomes meditation. Then it becomes karma.
If you want to achieve anything out of it, it will create a chain of cause and effect.

If you want this old man -- he may even be your father -- to have property, a bank balance, if your eyes

are on the bank balance, then it is not karma. But the bank balance can be there in many shapes: you may be
serving this old man to achieve heaven; that again is a bank balance. You may be serving this old man
because you have been taught that service leads to God; then again it is a sort of bank balance. You are not
HERE. Your mind is somewhere else.

When karma is totally here and now, when your mind is not moving anywhere else into the future, then

it doesn't create any chain. In this very moment it becomes a meditation.

THESE THREE -- TAPAS -- AUSTERITIES; DAMAN -- SELF-RESTRAINT; AND KARMA -- DEDICATED
WORK; FORM THE SUPPORT. THE VEDAS ARE ITS LIMBS.
VEDA is a beautiful word: it simply means knowledge. Whatsoever has been known about the Brahman,
wherever, it is all Vedas. So I call The Bible a Veda and I call the Koran a Veda; to me there are thousands
and thousands of Vedas. And whenever a person becomes enlightened, whatsoever he says is a Veda. So
the Vedas are not only four. The word Veda comes from VID; vid means to know. And wherever this knowing
is accumulated, wherever this knowing is symbolized, it becomes a Veda.

THE VEDAS ARE ITS LIMBS AND TRUTH ITS ABODE.

These three things have to be remembered: make intense effort so that an inner heat is born and changes

you chemically; be in a self-restraint so that you become more self-centered, unmoving, unwavering,
centered, rooted; and make your work a karma -- a dedicated prayer, a meditation. Try to know all that has
been known before. Not that through it you will come to truth but all that will become a help. It can also
become a barrier if you become too much attached to it. Otherwise, it will be a help, an indicator.

Ultimately truth is the abode -- and truth means that. And that comes to you when you live a life of

suchness.

ONE WHO REALIZES IT -- KNOWLEDGE OF BRAHMAN -- THUS DESTROYS SIN AND IS WELL
ESTABLISHED IN BRAHMAN, THE INFINITE, THE BLISSFUL AND THE HIGHEST.

The Supreme Doctrine

Chapter #17

Chapter title: Make Every Moment a Celebration

16 July 1973 pm in Mt Abu Meditation Camp

Archive code: 7307165

ShortTitle: DOCTRN17

Audio:

Yes

Video:

No

Length: 68 mins

The first question:

BELOVED OSHO,
IN THE MORNING YOU SAID THAT ONE WHO REALIZES THE BRAHMAN THUS DESTROYS SIN AND IS
WELL ESTABLISHED IN BRAHMAN. IN THIS REFERENCE, EXPLAIN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE
CONCEPT OF SIN IN THE UPANISHADS AND IN THE BIBLE. AND PLEASE ALSO EXPLAIN THE
IMPLICATIONS IN HUMAN LIFE.

There is a very basic difference. To the biblical religions -- to Jews, Christians, and even Mohammedans

-- the concept of sin is totally different than it is to the Hindus and Buddhists. The concept of sin in
Christianity, in The Bible, is related to your acts -- to what you do. What you do may be a sin, or it may not
be a sin; it may be a virtue but it is related to your doing. To the Upanishads, it is not related to the doing at
all. What you do is irrelevant; what you ARE is the point. It is not the doing but the being itself that is
significant.

So what will it mean to call a man a sinner? We mean that he is ignorant, unaware of his own self.

Because of this ignorance, his acts become sins. The act can become a sin only because the doer is ignorant,
unaware, unconscious, is living in a state of sleep. Ignorance is sin and awareness is virtue. Your acts are
irrelevant because they are not central; in the center is your consciousness. If something is wrong with the
consciousness, your acts will go wrong. If the consciousness is set right, your acts will follow.

So just to go on changing your acts will not lead you anywhere. You can commit a sin, you can repent a

sin, you can replace a sin by a virtue, by a virtuous act -- but it will not be of any meaning for the
Upanishads if YOU remain the same. Unless you change, your consciousness changes, unless you attain a
new plane of being, a new plenitude, just a change of your acts is useless.

So the Upanishads do not think in terms of acts; they think in terms of your being. Alert, aware,

conscious, you are virtuous. Why? -- because the more you are alert and conscious and aware, the less is the
possibility of committing a sin. The basic requirement for committing a sin is to be unconscious.

For example, you can be angry only if you forget yourself. If you are self-remembering, aware, anger is

impossible. It cannot exist with awareness. No coexistence is possible. When you are aware, it is not that
you control your anger, restrain your anger, suppress your anger -- no! It simply cannot be there. In a fully
aware person, anger cannot exist, just as in a fully lighted room darkness cannot exist. The coexistence is
impossible.

The moment you bring a lamp into the dark room, the darkness is no more there. With the light the

darkness cannot exist. And the Upanishads say it is futile and foolish to fight with darkness because you
CANNOT fight with darkness. If you fight you will be defeated. Howsoever strong you may be, you cannot
fight darkness because darkness is only the absence of light. Bring the light and darkness disappears.

The Upanishads say sin is darkness. Bring the light of consciousness and sin disappears. Do not fight

with the sin; do not be concerned directly with the sin; do not think in terms of sin. Otherwise you will feel
guilty and it will not be a spiritual growth; rather, it will be a fall.

Christianity has made people very guilty because whatsoever you do is a sin and you have to fight with

it. And nothing comes out of it. The more you fight with a sin, the deeper its roots go in you. The more you
fight, the stronger it becomes. The more you fight, the more you are a victim of it. Why? -- because the fight
is with darkness. You cannot win; there is no possibility of victory. And when you get defeated again and

again, you become guilty, inferior.

This whole effort of fighting with sins, with wrongdoings, makes you feel guilty and inferior. You start

feeling that you are absolutely unworthy, that you cannot do anything. Your spirit is not integrated through
this fight; rather, it becomes ill with an inferiority complex, a guilt complex.

The Upanishads say sins are not important. What you do is immaterial, what you ARE is the point. If

you are committing sins it shows only one thing: that you are fast asleep, unaware. So do not fight with the
sins; rather, on the contrary, move within and become more and more alert. As alertness grows within, sins
disappear without. A moment comes when you are simply a flame of light within, alert to whatsoever you
do, alert to whatsoever moves in the mind, alert to whatsoever happens in you. There is no sin then.

And this is possible; this victory is just within your hands. Then you will never have the feeling of being

guilty and inferior; you will never feel that you are unworthy. The more you make an effort to be conscious,
the more and more you will feel accepted, worthy, welcome -- the more you will feel that in you God has
some destiny to fulfill.

I call this approach more scientific, more religious, because it gives man a dignity. If you are concerned

with sin as an act, it gives you guiltiness and guiltiness cannot make you religious. And through guilt you
cannot feel the divine because your own guilt becomes a barrier. If you are deeply in guilt, you cannot feel
in any way grateful to the divine. The gratitude cannot exist there.

When you are accepted, when you feel worthy, when you feel the abode of the divine, when you feel

that a center in you exists which is beyond all acts, when you come nearer and nearer to this inner flame,
you become more and more grateful. Gratitude is the perfume that happens to a religious mind. Guilt is just
bad odor, just a bad smell. If you feel guilty, around you there is a bad odor, a bad smell.

To me, the Upanishads are more penetrating because they reach to the very being, to the very core of the

problem. Christian or Jewish attitudes are more superficial because they touch on the periphery. They touch
the act, not the being. And they think that by changing the acts the being will be changed. It is not possible.
You can go on changing the acts but the being cannot be changed because the periphery cannot change the
center, the outer cannot change the inner, the superficial cannot change the basic. But if you change the
center, the periphery changes automatically; if you change the inner, the outer follows it.

If I change you, your shadow will be changed. But if I try to paint your shadow and change it, you will

not be changed by it. And my whole effort will be futile because a shadow cannot even be painted. If you
move, the shadow will move with you and my paint will remain on the earth and your shadow will remain
untouched. Working with acts is like working with the shadow. What you do is just superficial. What you
are, what your being is, is the central thing.

The Upanishads touch the being, so they call AGYAN -- ignorance, unawareness -- the only sin. So the

sutra says that one who realizes thus destroys sin. Just by realizing the Brahman sins are destroyed -- all
your past sins. You may have committed many wrong acts through lives and lives; they are accumulated
there. And they are also destroyed just by your reaching and touching the innermost core of your being.

How are they destroyed? Our calculating minds will think, "I will have to repay each sin. For each sin I

will have to do something virtuous to cancel it." But the Upanishads say that just by realizing IT, just by
realizing the suchness, all sins are destroyed.

How are they destroyed? -- because yOU are not doing anything to destroy them. The phenomenon is

very subtle. It is just like this: you dream in the night that you are committing adultery, you are committing
murder, you have burned a whole city -- that you have committed many sins. In the morning you are awake.
The dream lingers a little, you remember it but you do not feel any guilt about it -- or do you feel it? If you
still feel some guilt about it, that means you are not yet awake. You are still sleepy and the dream still has a
little hangover around you; it is still with you. When you are really alert and awake, you can laugh about the
whole thing because it was a dream. Really, you never committed anything.

The Upanishads say this is the happening: when a person is awakened into Brahman, all the lives that he

has lived and all that he has done simply disappears like a long dream. With a new awareness, all that is past
appears to be illusory, as if it never happened, or as if it happened in a story -- a dream-drama.

That is why Upanishads call this world maya -- illusory. Not that it is not, not that it is unreal, but

because of this happening, when a person awakens into deep meditation, the whole world he has been living
in up to now appears dreamlike; it has no substance to it now.

Hence, this sutra: this sutra says when one realizes that, the suchness of existence, the Brahman, all sins

are destroyed. Nothing is to be done about them. They simply are no more with you, you have passed them,
you have gone beyond them. Now they belong to a past memory with no substance in it. You can relate

them as if they were dreams.

The Upanishads say that human consciousness has four states. One: while you are awake, the waking

consciousness; second: while you are dreaming, the dreaming consciousness; third: while you are so fast
asleep that there is no dream, the sleeping consciousness. And beyond these three is the fourth. The
Upanishads have not given it a name. They simply call it the fourth -- TURIYA. Turiya means the fourth.
That fourth is the state where you realize Brahman. All of the first three states are illusory if you enter the
fourth. Think of it in this way because that fourth is not yet your experience. But you have experienced
these three; thinking about these three something can be inferred about the fourth.

While you are awake, while you are in the waking consciousness during the day, what happens? The

dreaming consciousness has disappeared, it is no more. The sleeping consciousness has disappeared, it is no
more. Then the night will fall and you will fall asleep again; dreams will start. When the dreams start you
change the consciousness. The gear of consciousness is changed; now all that was in your waking
consciousness simply disappears.

You were awake in Mount Abu but you can dream you are in London or New York or Calcutta. Mount

Abu simply disappears; it is no more for the dreaming consciousness. For the dreaming consciousness
London is more real and you cannot even remember that you were in Mount Abu while awake. It disappears
so completely that there is not even a trace left. And you cannot feel any contradiction and you cannot raise
any question: "How did it happen? I was in Mount Abu and now I am in London." No, not even a doubt
arises because the one has so totally disappeared that you cannot bring it in to compare.

In the waking state you were living with your wife in the house. In the dream the wife has disappeared,

the house has disappeared. You are living with another woman; you have again married. And there is not
even any guilt that you have not divorced your wife -- because you cannot compare. The first has
disappeared so completely that there is no contradiction, no inconsistency about it.

And then you enter the third state, deep sleep, where dreams disappear. Now the waking state, the wife,

the house, they have already disappeared. Now the dreaming state, the wife you have just now married, the
new house, they have disappeared. Now both states have disappeared. You are so fast asleep that you do not
remember anything.

And then in the morning you are entering waking consciousness again. Now the dream has disappeared,

the sleep has disappeared. The same wife, the same house, again start -- the same world. Now again you are
in Mount Abu. The Upanishads say these three states show that whenever one of these states gets a grip on
you, the other two disappear.

There is a fourth state. We are making all the effort for that fourth -- to be beyond these three. That

fourth state is called turiya -- total awareness. In that total awareness all these three disappear and all that
belongs to these three disappears. That fourth cannot be transcended. There is no fifth state of
consciousness. The fourth is the last. Buddhas live in it, Christs live in it, Krishnas live in it. It cannot be
transcended. Because it cannot be transcended, it cannot be canceled by anything. Hence, the Upanishads
say this is the ultimate reality. All else was just relatively real. That which cannot be canceled by anything is
the final, the ultimate, the absolutely real.

The sins, all that you have done, simply disappear because you come to realize your being which is not a

doer at all. It has not done anything; it is just a witnessing self. And all that was done, was done by nature --
the natural laws.

It is very difficult for the society to understand it. That is why no society exists in the world which has

Upanishadic teaching as its basis. No society can exist with it, it is so dangerous a teaching. Hindus go on
reading the Upanishads but even they never try to construct a society, to create a society around this
teaching, because this is such a high standpoint for looking at things. It says that if a murderer is committing
a murder this is how things are -- how nature is functioning within him, how nature has become murderous
through him. One day, when this man will achieve the final consciousness, he will laugh. He will say, "I
never committed this. Just a situation, natural forces, did the whole work."

But if this is taught right now, this will create a confusion in the mind and a fear that "If this is taught

then everyone will commit murder and will say, 'What can I do? It is how nature is functioning in me.' "
This fear is also false because those who commit murder will commit it no matter what you say. We have
been giving punishment as much as possible -- imprisonment, life sentence, even death -- but nothing has
changed. Murders go on being committed; rather, they go on increasing.

We have never tried the other alternative. As far as I feel, as far as I know, if we base the society on the

Upanishadic teaching, not a single extra murder will be there. Things will remain as they are but there will

be more possibility for man to be transformed.

This is difficult because the whole of humanity has been conditioned to believe that man is a sinner and

he must be prevented; otherwise he will go on committing sins. He must be imprisoned, punished. He must
be tortured so that he is prevented from committing sins. But we have not prevented anyone -- not a single
man have we been able to prevent.

I have heard that in England, in the old days just two hundred years ago, whenever a thief was caught he

was to be flogged naked before the whole town at the crossroads. He would be hanged there and flogged
just to teach the whole town what happens if you commit stealing. But then it had to be stopped because the
whole village would gather to see the thief being flogged, and the pickpockets would try their art just there
on the crowd. And people were so attentive in looking at this torture that they would forget their pockets. So
then it became obvious that this was nonsense; no one was learning anything. Exactly there on the spot
people were committing stealing, they were doing the exact same thing.

To me, this phenomenon seems to be very symbolic. All our imprisonments, sentences, death sentences,

our tortures, have been futile; they have not changed a single man. They cannot because a man is a
configuration of so many natural forces. Just by punishing, you cannot change that configuration. A man is
such a deep-rooted phenomenon that just by beating him you cannot change his consciousness.

And really, this has been a very long game, very futile because the person who is beating is of the same

type. Policemen and thieves, they belong to the same category. Murderers and judges, they belong to the
same category. They are just standing on opposite poles but their quality of consciousness is similar. One is
committing a sin against the society; another is committing a sin for the society.

If you murder someone you will be murdered by the society and a murder by the society is not a sin.

How can you change murder by murder? How can you change violence by violence? You increase it; you
double it. You can take revenge but you cannot change anything.

The Upanishads say that when you come to the innermost core of being and become alert, totally alert

about what has happened, then you know it was PRAKRITI -- nature -- which was doing all. You have
always been a witness -- the PURUSHA.

The deepest philosophy in India has been SAMKHYA, and samkhya says all activity belongs to nature;

only consciousness belongs to you. All activity, virtuous or sinful -- all activity -- belongs to nature. To you
belongs only consciousness. Attain consciousness, become one with that, and all sins will be destroyed and
you will be established in Brahman.

The second question:

BELOVED OSHO,
IN MANY TRADITIONS THE TOTAL TRANSMISSION WAS PASSED FROM A MASTER TO ONLY ONE
DISCIPLE, SUCH AS FROM BUDDHA TO MAHAKASHYAPA, FROM BODHIDHARMA TO HUI-KE, DOWN
TO HUI NENG, WHOM YOU MENTIONED THIS MORNING. DO YOU HAVE SUCH A ONE RIGHT
DISCIPLE TO WHOM YOU PLAN TO TRANSFER TOTAL KNOWLEDGE AMONG YOUR DISCIPLES? IS
THERE A POSSIBILITY THAT YOU WILL DO THIS WITH A NUMBER OF PERSONS RATHER THAN ONLY
ONE? WHY IS IT THAT THE ULTIMATE SECRET IS USUALLY TRANSMITTED TO ONLY ONE IN MANY
TRADITIONS?

It is not transmitted to only one. It is transmitted to many but only one is authorized to transmit it

further. Buddha transmitted his knowing to thousands but he gave his authority to Mahakashyapa because
he was the most capable of being a master. It is not so difficult to become enlightened but to become a
master is very difficult. There are many enlightened persons but not all enlightened persons are masters.

When you become enlightened, it is your own thing but to be a master you need some art to convey it to

others. And it is the most difficult art because something has to be conveyed which cannot be conveyed;
something has to be transmitted which is not transmittable; something has to be said which cannot be said in
language. So a very highly qualified artist can be appointed to transmit it.

It happened that Buddha came one day with a flower in his hand and he sat under the tree. He was going

to talk to the disciples but he remained silent and the disciples became uneasy. It had never happened
before. He would come and he would start talking, so why was he silent on this day? And he went on
looking at the flower as if he had forgotten completely that ten thousand disciples were gathered there to
listen to him.

Minutes passed and they looked very long at him but no one had the courage to say, "What are you

doing? Have you forgotten us? Have you forgotten what you have called us for and what you wanted to
say?"

He had called them particularly and they had come with great expectations. He had become very old, so

they thought that before he left the body he was going to say something secret, esoteric, something very
essential that he had not said before. And then he remained silent and he continued looking at the flower.
The silence became heavy, it became a burden. Everyone was uncomfortable. And then Mahakashyapa, one
of the disciples, laughed. And this Mahakashyapa is rare because his name had never been mentioned before
this. He was an unknown disciple as far as the world is concerned but not to Buddha. Buddha must have
known him.

There were many famous disciples. Sariputta was there who was a great teacher in his own right.

Moggalayan was there: he was also a great teacher in his own right; he had thousands of disciples of his
own. Ananda was there, the closest one, who was constantly with Buddha like a shadow. And there were
many -- very well known, famous in some way or other. And this Mahakashyapa was never mentioned in
Buddhist scriptures before this episode.

He laughed. Buddha looked at him. Buddha smiled and asked Mahakashyapa to come near.

Mahakashyapa reached near. Buddha gave the flower to him without saying a single word. And then he said
to the assembly, "All which could be said through language I have said to you and that which cannot be said
through language I have given to Mahakashyapa."

This is called the great transmission. Mahakashyapa could understand the language of silence and one

who can understand the language of silence can teach and convey things through silence. Mahakashyapa is
not the only one to whom Buddha has given his secret key; the secret key had been given to many. But the
secretmost key can be conveyed only in silence and Mahakashyapa understood that language. Then he was
appointed to go on conveying this silent teaching.

Bodhidharma is the sixth in that tradition. Mahakashyapa was the first who got the teaching from

Buddha; Bodhidharma is the sixth. And Bodhidharma went around India to find a person who could
understand that language of silence. He couldn't find him here; that is why he had to go to China. There he
met Hui-Ke, after sitting for nine years in front of a wall.

Buddha had given his enlightenment, the taste of it, to many but they were not all masters. They attained

it for themselves and then they dissolved into infinity.

To be a master is a very difficult and delicate thing. You have attained the infinity, and still somehow

you remain here on this shore to teach others. It is very difficult. In a sense, it happens so rarely that it
seems exceptional because one who has known the infinity would like to dissolve into it. Why bother
teaching you? Why bother saying something to those who cannot understand or to those who can only
misunderstand? Why go on teaching them? Why bother? One would like to move into silence, into bliss,
into the infinite, and forget the world.

A master means someone to whom the call of bliss is less urgent than the call of compassion. He says,

"Wait." The infinite can wait; there is no hurry about it. The bliss can wait, the ultimate dissolution can wait
a little; there is no hurry about it.

A master means a being who lingers on a little more on this shore. It is very difficult because he will

have to devise things which will allow him to linger here a little more. And this is going to be very arduous
because now the body wants to rest, to go back to nature. Once you become enlightened, the body wants to
rest. Now there is no need to carry it. The body would like to dissolve back into nature because the destiny
is fulfilled. Now the house is not needed; now the bird of the soul can fly to the infinite. This abode is
useless. Why carry it on? But a master has to carry on. He has to create devices through which he can go on
carrying the body in order to help others.

The body is not the only problem. The very effort seems so futile because you talk to ten thousand

people and maybe only a single one will understand. And the remaining nine thousand nine hundred and
ninety-nine will create such problems for you... they will create problems and troubles for you in every way.

This is natural because they cannot understand you and whatsoever you say and do becomes dangerous

for them because their established values are challenged. Their established life is challenged, their way of
living is challenged -- everything. You go on giving shocks to them, so they will take revenge. They will do
whatsoever they can do to stop you -- to stop you from helping them. Thus, it is easy for an enlightened
person to simply dissolve.

So Buddha says that there are two types of enlightened persons. One he calls an ARHAT; by arhat he

means one who has attained his self and who is not bothered by anything else, he simply dissolves like a
drop into the ocean. The other he calls BODHISATTVA; by bodhisattva he means one who has become an
arhat, but who resists the ultimate desire -- the ultimate desire to dissolve -- who resists the ultimate desire
and lingers on this shore, on this bank, to help others. And Buddha says that the bodhisattva is making a
great sacrifice.

Arhats can never become masters; only bodhisattvas can become masters. And neither can all

bodhisattvas become masters because mastery needs a particular training -- a particular training to convey, a
particular training to help, a particular training to advise and counsel, a particular training to create new
devices -- because with every individual something different is needed and with every age something
different is needed.

That is why all old techniques become meaningless. They were devised for particular minds and those

minds are no more in the world. And we go on practicing those techniques. They cannot help many; they
can help only very few. New devices are needed. You can become a master only when you are able to create
new devices and be inventive and creative.

It is not that enlightenment and the secret keys of its knowledge are delivered to only one. They are

delivered to many but to only one as a master who will be capable of delivering the key on further.

Now, because this will be the last meeting, I would like to say something to you before you leave the

campus. Firstly, this has been my observation -- that ninety percent of you, and this is a very great number,
have been doing meditation very intensely. This is very hopeful but the intensity was more or less
dependent on the group. It may be difficult for you to be so intense back at home.

So do one thing: when you do the meditation at home, close your eyes first, feel me present just before

you as I am here. Visualize me, visualize the group around you and then start meditation as you have been
doing with the group. That will be very helpful. If you have a tape-recording, then put it on so that the
whole atmosphere is created and you are not alone. It is very difficult to do it so intensely individually. The
group soul possesses you.

Back home you will even feel, you will even wonder, that for three times every day you were making

such strenuous effort. You may not be able even to imagine how you could do that. The group soul grips
you. Then you are just in a current; then you are just moving in a flood; then the whole group pushes you
on.

Many people come to me and say, "In the camp it is wonderful but when we go back it is lost." Even

back home remember the group, visualize the group, feel the group, and the group will be there. At least I
will be there.

And if you are a sannyasin, then just take the locket in your hand and exhale deeply three times. Do not

inhale. Exhale deeply and allow the body to inhale: you do not inhale. Just exhale three times, remember
me, and start -- and I will be there.

Space and time do not really matter. If your intensity is such that you can feel me, I will be there. The

space disappears, time disappears, and ninety percent of you will be capable of doing the same as you are
doing here. And it is good to do it alone. It is good to start in a group but it is not good to become dependent
on the group forever.

But do not leave a gap. The day you are back home start immediately. Do not say, "Let me rest for a

week and then I will start." Then you will never start; that is a trick of the mind. Immediately you are home,
start it. It will be happening to you there. And once it can happen to you individually, you have become
independent. Meditation can be started in a group but it must end in independence. You must become
independent of the group.

The second thing: many of you will feel afraid of your neighbors, of your family. They will think you

have gone mad. Here it is no problem because everyone is more mad than you... so you are not afraid. No
one is going to say that you are mad. The whole atmosphere, the milieu, is different. It is cooperative here.
But back home the whole atmosphere will be against you. That creates a barrier. So it will be good to tell
your family, "I am experimenting with this method and this is a mad method." Go around to your neighbors
and tell them, "In the morning for one hour I will be doing this method -- and this is absolutely mad, but do
not get disturbed."

Tell them this rather than hiding because if you hide you cannot do it rightly; you will always go on

suppressing something. Just go around and tell them by yourself. And only for a few days, three or four

days, will people be interested in you. Then they will forget because no one has the time to go on thinking
about you, that you have become mad. After three or four days they get adjusted and they know that you are
doing something.

And if you continue it for three months, they will start asking you what you are doing because now

something will be happening to you -- so apparently, so obviously. It will be coming on your face, in your
eyes, in your movements. The way you will behave, everything, will change. You will take on a new grace.
A new silence will follow you and a subtle joy not caused by anything. Just because you are alive, a subtle
joy will be there with you and everyone will be able to feel the difference. Then they will start asking you.
Then they will never think you mad.

So if you can persist in this madness, no one will think you a madman. But persistence is needed -- and

in the beginning, a little courage. If you are a coward, then of course you cannot continue it. Do not try to
rationalize it; do not say others will be disturbed. No one is disturbed. You can even invite your whole
family to look at you. They will enjoy it. No one will be disturbed; it will be a free entertainment for them!

Invite the neighbors. Tell them that you have come from a meditation camp where you have learned a

technique and you want to show it to them. In the beginning they will laugh but they cannot laugh for long.
They will get serious about it. But your change will prove its effect; nothing else can prove it. You cannot
argue about it.

The third thing: do not try to convince anybody about it; do not argue. It is useless; you simply waste

your energy. There is only one argument which can prove anything and that is you. If YOU change, you
become a very vital argument. If you do not change, just arguing is useless; you cannot convince anybody.
Just reasoning never convinces; only your being convinces. So do not be argumentative about it.

This has been my feeling: when you learn something new, you become argumentative; you go on talking

about it. And it is not that you are doing harm to anybody -- you may be simply thinking to help them.
When something is so fresh to you and you have experienced something new, you want to share it. This is
natural. It may be natural but it is not wise because the other is absolutely unacquainted with what you are
talking about.

And my methods particularly are so mad that you cannot convince anybody! Do not try it because if you

cannot convince anyone, it may have a harmful effect on you. Your failure will make you less confident.
Then you will become hesitant within. You cannot convince anybody and others can convince you that you
have gone mad -- that you are wrong. They can convince you because you have had a subtle experience
which is inexpressible. How can you convey it? Unless someone is very welcoming and receptive, you
cannot convey it. To say no to anything is very easy; to negate is very easy. To be positive, to say yes, is
very difficult.

Chekhov has written a story. One man in a village was so idiotic, so stupid, that the whole village knew

about it, that he was stupid. And he himself became so convinced that he was stupid that he became afraid
even to talk, to utter a single word, because the moment he said anything someone would say, "What a
stupid thing you are saying! What a silly thing."

He was so depressed, he went to a sage and asked him, "What to do? I am such a proved idiot that I

cannot even utter a single word. Before I utter anything, they say, 'Be silent. Do not speak!' "

The sage said, "Do one thing: never say yes to anything from now on. Whatsoever you see, condemn it."

The idiot said, "But they will not listen to me."

The sage said, "Don't bother. If they say, 'This is a beautiful painting,' say, 'This painting beautiful? Such

an ugly thing I have not seen before!' If they say, 'This novel is very original,' say, 'This is just a repetition.
Thousands of times the same story has been written.' Do not bother to prove it. Simply say no to everything;
make it your basic philosophy. If someone says that the night is beautiful, the moon is beautiful, say, 'You
call this beauty?' And they cannot prove otherwise, remember. They cannot prove!"

The man went back to his village. He started saying no to everything. Within a week there was a rumor

around the village: "We were wrong. That man is not an idiot. He is a great critic; he is a genius."

To say no needs no wisdom. If you want to become a great genius, say no, be a critic. Never bother to

say yes to anything. Whatsoever anybody says, deny it flatly. And no one can prove it because to prove
anything is very difficult. 'No' is the simplest trick.

When you are talking of higher experiences, anybody can say no to you. Any stupid man can say no and

you cannot prove otherwise. So be alert. Do not talk about it unless you feel that a very sympathetic heart is

there to listen, to receive. And do not argue. If something has happened to you, your being will become the
argument. Do not waste any energy convincing anyone. Use all the energy that you have in transforming
yourself. Your transformation will help many; your argument can help no one.

Once you are transformed, people will start falling in love with you. They will become receptive,

inviting; they will become hosts. And whatsoever you say to them will be received as a seed; they will carry
it in their hearts. But do not try to convince anyone; do not argue; do not be intellectual and rational about it.
The whole phenomenon is so absurd, it is so paradoxical!

It is paradoxical because through being consciously mad you go beyond all madness. A person

meditating with this technique cannot go mad. It is impossible because he is throwing out all madness, not
accumulating it. And unless you accumulate, you cannot be mad.

You are daily cleansing yourself; you are daily passing through a catharsis. You are changing --

transforming your madness into meditation. Doing this method, apparently so mad, you will create the
possibility where real sanity will happen to you. This is paradoxical; this is why I call it absurd.

Laugh, sing, dance, but do not argue. Your dance can become infectious, your singing can become

infectious. Your laughter, coming deep from your heart, can penetrate others' hearts. Be more joyful,
blissful, ecstatic, as if every moment is a blessing and every moment is a gratitude. And make every
moment a celebration.
These are my last words for this camp:

Make every moment a celebration; then you will not need to search for God. God will try to search for

you, wherever you are.